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The Portland Trail Blazers gave the Miami Heat a great game, and for parts of the night it appeared the Blazers would hand the Heat just their fourth home loss of the season.

But there was just too much of that No. 6 guy for that to happen.

Keys to the Game:

• The Heat closed the game on a 16-2 run, as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade went absolutely nuts.  The duo combined for 62 points.  Perhaps just as remarkably, the Blazers tandem of LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard matched them with 62 of their own.  It was a great showdown between two teams top-heavy in talent.
• Chris Bosh, forever the third fiddle, was the difference maker.  J.J. Hickson found it impossible to keep the veteran from attacking the paint and hitting jumper after jumper.
• The Heat took great care of the ball, turning it over only nine times
• The Heat won the battle of the boards, 32-25

HEAT 117, BLAZERS 104 — FINAL

LeBron James and Dwayne Wade check out with just over a minute remaining in the game.  They received a nice standing ovation from the crowd.  I wonder why.  Oh yeah, because they both played brilliant basketball.  What a tandem.

HEAT 117, BLAZERS 104 — 50.6 seconds left

This game will go into the category of "very close games that don't resemble it by the final score."

The Blazers gave the Heat a battle for 3.75 quarters of play, but just fell apart horribly as Damian Lillard needed a breather late in the fourth, and were unable to recover when their young point guard got back on the court.

That's the problem with teams that lack depth and balanced scoring.

HEAT 116, BLAZERS 104 — 1:15 4th

We see ya, No. 6
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LeBron James has had six straight 30-plus point games while shooting 50-plus percent from the floor (if nothing strange happens in the final two minutes of the game to mess up his 71 percent shooting tonight).

The number of NBA players that have done that in league history?

Zero.

HEAT 115, BLAZERS 102 — 1:55 4th

Damian Lillard found the Heat do have at least one shot blocker:  LeBron James.

Lillard had his take to the basket pinned by LBJ, and Miami came down and scored in transition on yet another three-pointer.  This one came from Mario Chalmers on the left wing.

HEAT 111, BLAZERS 102 — 2:56 4th, Blazers Timeout

The Blazers have absolutely crumbled like a piece of stale coffee cake without Damian Lillard on the floor.  

HEAT 108, BLAZERS 102 — 3:14 4th

Dwyane Wade has 10 points in the fourth quarter with four-plus minutes remaining in the game.

HEAT 106, BLAZERS 102 — 3:40 4th

LaMarcus Aldridge is surprisingly fast for a 6'11" power forward.  After splitting two Heat defenders, he went up for a nifty up-and-under, but the layup fell short as he was fouled.  Aldridge hit both free throws to tie the game.

HEAT 99, BLAZERS 99 — 5:07 4th

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Damian Lillard heads to the bench for a breather, as LaMarcus Aldridge checks back in for the Blazers.

Aldridge will have to carry the team since Lillard had been doing pretty much everything while he was on the bench.

On cue, Aldridge takes it to the basket with his weak hand for the bucket.

BLAZERS 97, HEAT 97 — 6:15 4th

The Miami Heat are in the penalty with over seven minutes remaining in the quarter.

Prepare for a long fourth quarter.

BLAZERS 95, HEAT 93 — 7:20 4th

Norris Cole picked up his fifth foul as he hacked Wes Matthews on a fast break.  Mario Chalmers will see the majority of the rest of the minutes in this contest, and I'm not sure whether that is a good or bad thing for Miami.

The way Damian Lillard is playing, I'm not sure there is any point guard in the league that could handle him defensively.

BLAZERS 94, HEAT 90 — 8:16 4th

Damian Lillard has 31 points as he heads to the free throw line for two more.  Lillard knocked both down and is now 10-of-11 from the line, for his 32nd and 33rd points.

Those who said prior to the season that Lillard had franchise talent weren't kidding.  He's doing this against an excellent Heat perimeter defense.

BLAZERS 94, HEAT 90 — 8:16 4th

Jared Jeffries just answered my question as to why he's in the league:  he's a great slasher and can really get to the hole.

Oh, wait, no he can't.  He just happened to as the lane opened up and rotations were slow.

He calmly nailed the second free throw after hitting the first.  Impressive.

HEAT 88, BLAZERS 88 — 9:30 4th

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Norris Cole has great lateral foot speed, but isn't very good at anticipating nor reacting to pick and roll situations.  That's the next step in his evolution as a defender, because he's sticking with Damian Lillard until a pick is thrown at him.

Lillard is very adept at choosing directions on a pick, and has varied his approach to either going with or against the direction of the pick, which has kept Cole guessing.

HEAT 88, BLAZERS 87 — 10:26 4th

Damian Lillard is 9-of-14 from the floor tonight after going just 1-of-16 in the Blazers last contest against the Orlando Magic.

It doesn't make a ton of sense, save the fact that Magic coach Jacque Vaughn's defensive strategy was far more diversified than Erik Spoelstra's.  Against the Magic, Lillard faced three different defenders throughout the game (Aaron Afflalo, Jameer Nelson and rookie Maurice Harkless), while the Heat have only been able to throw two decent defending point guards at Lillard.

It seemed the size of Afflalo and Harkless was an effective way to keep Lillard from getting quality shots.  He's having no problem getting shots up over Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole.

HEAT 86, BLAZERS 85 — 11:07 4th

The Blazers count themselves fortunate to have a point guard like Damian Lillard to isolate at the end of quarters.  Lillard's pick and roll with Jared Jeffries resulted in a nice pull up jumper to give Lillard his 27th point of the game.  He scored nine in the third quarter, though the Blazers were outscored 28-23 in the period.

Lillard closed the quarter with a triple from the top of the key and is the game's leading scorer entering the final period.

HEAT 86, BLAZERS 82 — End of 3rd

Damian Lillard cut the lead to 10 before a TV Timeout.

The Blazers are still down double-digits, which will be difficult to emerge from on the road in one of the toughest arenas to play in.

HEAT 81, BLAZERS 71 — 4:35 3rd

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Chris Bosh continues to feast inside and the Blazers' lack of shot-changing, shot blocking big men becomes very apparent when the Heat are dribble penetrating and/or kicking it inside.

Oddly enough, the Heat have the same Achilles' heel.

HEAT 81, BLAZERS 67 — 5:09 3rd

Shane Battier comes back after a Trail Blazers timeout to hit another three, after his previous led to the timeout. 

Never underestimate the value of role players.  Battier may not be a great scorer, but a little floor spacing and some hot shooting can go a long way.

HEAT 79, BLAZERS 67 — 6:00 3rd

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Dwyane Wade is such an aggressive rebounder for a 6'4" guard.  Wade fought hard for an offensive rebound and put back his own miss to give the Heat a six point lead.

The next possession, Shane Battier nailed a triple.

Things are beginning to unravel for Portland, only further illustrating that a decent team can beat a very good one for a while, but putting it together for 48 minutes is the real challenge.

HEAT 74, BLAZERS 65 — 7:40 3rd

Chris Bosh hits another jumper and is having one of his finest games of the 2012-13 NBA season.

The reason?  J.J. Hickson.

Again:  It's become abundantly clear why NBA GMs aren't busy ringing Neil Olshey for the big man's services.

HEAT 66, BLAZERS 63 — 9:14 3rd

Dwyane Wade ran a nice give-and-go with Chris Bosh at the top of the key which resulted in Wade being fouled in the paint.  Wade's ball fake before passing the ball opened up an easy cutting lane and he reaped the benefit as Bosh's bounce pass hit him directly in stride.

The Heat have been moving the ball extremely well.

HEAT 62, BLAZERS 61 — 10:36 3rd

The Blazers open the second half with LaMarcus Aldridge continuing his carnage.  An easy jumper from the left wing allowed the Blazers to draw first blood.

The real interesting thing, as I said, will be to see how long—if at all—LeBron James sits in the second half.

BLAZERS 61, HEAT 60 —  11:27 3rd

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The Heat out-scored the Blazers 29-12 over the final seven minutes of the quarter.  That's not a coincidence, as the 7-minute mark marked LeBron James checking back into the game.  They closed the quarter on a 15-2 run.

James has scored or assisted on 18 of the Heat's 22 field goals, and they just can't get it done without him on the court.

It's not unreasonable to think that Erik Spoelstra may play James the entire second half.  Then again, this is just a regular season game.

BLAZERS 59, HEAT 58 — Halftime

Chris Bosh has been exposing J.J. Hickson.

Bosh has 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and though Hickson seems to have good end-to-end footspeed, his lateral foot speed is nowhere near on par with Bosh's and it's resulted in him either getting blown by or laying back so far that Bosh can simply drill the open jumper.

BLAZERS 59, HEAT 54 — Under 1 Minute in Half