Associated Press
The NBA roundup …
NEW ORLEANS ó Chris Paul played as hard and long as needed to give the New Orleans Hornets a desperately needed victory in the playoffs.
Paul had 32 points and 12 assists in 46 minutes, helping New Orleans hold on for a 95-93 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday in Game 3 of their first-round series.
Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points for Denver, but missed a jumper that could have put the Nuggets in the lead with under 5 seconds left. James Posey, playing with a sprained knee, corralled the rebound and New Orleans held on, pulling to 2-1 in the series with Game 4 coming up on Monday night.
David West had 19 points and nine rebounds before fouling out in the final minute. Rasual Butler scored 17 points and Posey had 13 points and nine rebounds, none bigger than his last with 3.2 seconds left.
Chauncey Billups scored 16 points, J.R. Smith had 14, Linas Kleiza 13 and Kenyon Martin 12.
New Orleans led 94-86 after Butler’s free throws with 1:33 left, but Anthony’s 3 pulled Denver to 94-89 with 1:23 to go. Martin made a pair of free throws with 48 seconds left, then West fouled out 25 seconds remaining and Billups hit two free throws to make it 94-93.
Kleiza then stole Peja Stojakovic’s inbounds pass intended for Posey and Denver set up for a potential winning possession. The Hornets’ defense collapsed inside, forcing Anthony to take an off-balance jumper that bounced out.
Heat 107, Hawks 78
MIAMI ó Dwyane Wade swished a 3-pointer, then turned and shook his hand like it was burning.
Yep, Wade and the Miami Heat are that hot right now.
Wade finished with 29 points and eight assists, Jermaine O’Neal added 22 points and 10 rebounds, and the Heat extended Atlanta’s decade-plus road playoff drought, coasting to a huge halftime lead before beating the Hawks 107-78 Saturday night in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round matchup.
It was over early: Atlanta missed 17 of its first 19 shots, and a 25-6 Heat run to end the first half pushed their lead to 50-29.
“We came out and used the energy of our crowd,” Wade said. “Our crowd was amazing tonight. We came out from the jump and used that energy. It got us into the flow of the game and we played that way the whole night.”
Josh Smith, Al Horford and Mike Bibby scored 13 apiece for Atlanta, which is 0-12 in road playoff games since May 8, 1997, losing all but one by at least 10 points.
The Heat lead the series 2-1 and host Game 4 Monday night.
“Things really went well tonight,” O’Neal said, “but we don’t have time to relax.”
Mavericks 99, Spurs 90
DALLAS ó Josh Howard scored 28 points, seven in an early second-half spurt that put the Dallas Mavericks ahead to stay in a 99-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs that gave them a 3-1 lead in their first-round series.
Tony Parker had 31 of his 43 points by halftime, matching George Gervin’s franchise playoff record for points in a half. That came after he was held to 12 points in Game 3, when the Spurs lost 88-67 in their lowest-scoring playoff game ever.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in San Antonio.