Wade Guides Heat Past Kings, NBA Scores

Dwyane Wade got back to doing what he does best -- scoring. Wade scored 24 points and the Miami Heat beat Sacramento 116-109 on Thursday night, taking advantage of Kings star DeMarcus Cousins' one-game suspension.

"The biggest thing for me was my first four shots of the game were right at the rim and I like those odds a lot better," Wade said. "The rest just came within the flow. I was just being very aggressive tonight."

Wade was averaging 10.8 points on 32.7-percent shooting over his past four games after beginning the season with five 20-plus scoring games.

"I just felt that I needed to be more aggressive offensively," Wade said. "Sometimes I got into the mode of too much playmaking and maybe my shot became second nature and today I just tried to flip it."

Chris Bosh had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and Tyler Johnson had 19 points to help Miami win for the fourth time in five games.

"It was not one of our better defensive performances of the season, but there was some better execution of some of the things we've been working on offensively," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Cousins, averaging 30.8 points in his last five games, was suspended for hitting Atlanta's Al Horford in the head with a forearm Wednesday night in the Kings' loss to the Hawks.

"He's one of the best bigs in the NBA so I'd have liked to take that challenge on and really compete against him," said Heat center Hassan Whiteside, who played 18 games with Cousins as teammates with the Kings in parts of two seasons in 2010-12.

The Kings are 0-5 without Cousins this season and 11-38 since he joined the team in 2010.

Thursday, November 19 Scoreboard

Miami 116, Sacramento 109
    
Cleveland 115, Milwaukee 100

Golden State 124, Los Angeles 117

Friday, November 20 Schedule (All Times Central)

Philadelphia at Charlotte, 6 p.m.

Brooklyn at Boston, 6:30 p.m.

Houston at Memphis, 7 p.m.

Detroit at Minnesota, 7 p.m.

San Antonio at New Orleans, 7 p.m.

New York at Oklahoma City, 7 p.m.

Utah at Dallas, 7:30 p.m.

Phoenix at Denver, 8 p.m.

Los Angeles at Portland, 9 p.m.

Chicago at Golden State, 9:30 p.m.

Toronto at Los Angeles, 9:30 p.m.