Miami streak hits 19 with win vs. Hawks

MIAMI — Dwyane Wade scored 23 points and the Miami Heat extended their winning streak to 19 games, leading wire-to-wire in beating the Atlanta Hawks 98-81 on Tuesday night.

LeBron James scored 15 and Chris Bosh and Mario Chalmers added 14 apiece for the Heat, who matched the fifth-longest streak in NBA history. They will try for their 20th straight win on Wednesday at Philadelphia, the start of a five-game trip.

Only three teams have won at least 20 consecutive games in the same season: the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers (33), the 2007-08 Houston Rockets (22) and the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks (20). The Washington Capitols also won 20 straight, spanning the end of the 1947-48 season and the start of the 1948-49 campaign.

Josh Smith scored 15 for the Hawks, who got 12 apiece from Al Horford and Jeff Teague.

Ray Allen scored 12 and Udonis Haslem grabbed 11 rebounds for the Heat, which won easily even with James — who shot 3 for 11 — scoring less than 20 points for the second straight game. James did finish with seven rebounds and seven assists.

The crowd was 20,350, a record at AmericanAirlines Arena for a regular-season game.

Miami has the best overall record in the NBA and now leads the Eastern Conference race by 9½ games over Indiana and New York, who were both idle Tuesday. The Heat (48-14) have 20 games left, while the Pacers have 19 and the Knicks 21.