Miami Heat 111-128 Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers extended their win-streak to three as they beat the Heat at the Staples Center on Wednesday. 

Led by Paul George and Landry Shamet, eight of the Clippers' players reached double figures in scoring. Moreover, the whole team buried in total 24 shots from the 3-point line, the most in franchise history. In the third quarter, they drained record-high nine triples, tearing the opponents' defense apart from the perimeter.

22-year-old Shamet made key contributions to the Clippers' victory in the fourth quarter. Though the team established an eight-point lead after a boiling hot third quarter, the Heat were catching up fast in the fourth quarter thanks to the efforts of Derrick Jones Jr. and Bam Adebayo. It was Shamet who stood out to go 4-4 to score 14 points and two assists. The two straight 3-pointers he sank at the end of the game led to a 11-0 run which the Clippers used to seal the deal.

Miami only had limited hands of eight players for Wednesday's game thanks to the trade with the Memphis Grizzlies over Andre Iguodala. Moreover, the team's franchise player Jimmy Butler had to quit in advance because of injury. Currently, the Heat are fourth in the Eastern Conference.

Denver Nuggets 98-95 Utah Jazz

The Nuggets were even more shorthanded than the Heat thanks to the five-team trade on Tuesday and continuous injuries. As a result, they arrived at the Vivint Smart Home Arena with a seven-player roster, two of them, P.J. Dozier and Vlatko Cancar, were not even in their regular rotation.

Gary Harris' underperformance was not helping either. As the starting shooting guard, he missed all 13 attempts, including six 3-pointers, and only got five points via free throws. Torrey Craig and Monte Morris together put down 23 points, better than their average stats but not good enough to save the team.

Fortunately for Denver, they had Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. Murray scored game-high 31 points and buried four shots from downtown, but Jokic was the biggest hero. Having dropped 30 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists, he achieved his 11th triple-double this season. Though he missed the two 3-pointer attempts, Jokic made seven perimeter shots, the same number of the shots he made in the paint. As a result, two-time Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) Rudy Gobert could not figure out how to stop the young Serbian big man from scoring or helping his teammates to score.

In the last minute, Jokic received the ball with 2.16-meter Gobert standing right behind him. He dribbled the ball once and then scored two points with a turnaround fadeaway jumper, helping the Nuggets regain the lead 96-95.

By contrast, this loss was simply humiliating for the Jazz. They were playing at home against a team that played back-to-back with only seven payers, not to mention that the Jazz once led by 15 points, but they lost in the end. In the last three minutes of the game, their orchestrators – Mike Conley, Joe Ingles and Donovan Mitchell – kept committing turnovers and no one stood out to save the day like Jokic did.

This is already the fifth straight loss by Utah which already dropped out of top 4 in the West.

Indiana Pacers 118-119 Toronto Raptors

The Raptors claimed their 12th consecutive victory in a comeback game against the Pacers at the Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday, creating a new team record.

Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam dropped 32, 30 and 25 points, respectively. Their team trailed at most by 19 points in the game and were down by 10 into the last two and a half minutes. Nonetheless, their three core players worked together to launch a 11-0 in the following two minutes, gaining the lead before Fred VanVleet finished a game-winning steal on Malcolm Brogdon in the end.

On Indiana's side, Brogdon scored team-high 24 points but allowing a steal in the last possession also cost his team the game. Domantas Sabonis again put down a triple-double of 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Victor Oladipo was obviously still adjusting his game as he went 5-14 to get 13 points.

Other games on Wednesday (home teams in bold):

Phoenix Suns 108-116 Detroit Pistons

Orlando Magic 100-116 Boston Celtics

Golden State Warriors 88-129 Brooklyn Nets

Atlanta Hawks 127-120 Minnesota Timberwolves

Cleveland Cavaliers 103-109 Oklahoma City thunder

Memphis Grizzlies 121-107 Dallas Mavericks