MIAMI - So much for Stephen Currys mini-shooting slump.Curry scored 40 points on 11-of-18 shooting, and the Golden State Warriors beat the Miami Heat 114-97 on Tuesday night for their sixth consecutive victory.You just feel a rhythm, said Curry, who was 8 for 24 in his previous two games. I had guys set some great screens early to kind of get me going. You start finding shots and it feels good. Even the ones I missed terribly felt good, which is pretty funny.Klay Thompson had 24 points for the Warriors, who shot 57 per cent. Curry finished 8 of 11 from 3-point range.You always stay confident, stay ready, Curry said. You win games all sorts of ways with different individual performances. How we shot last game had nothing to do with this game. If we execute our offence well, youre going to get good shots.Golden State scored 14 straight points to open a 107-95 lead with 2:50 to go. Curry and Thompson capped the run with consecutive 3-pointers.The beauty of this team is we can play both ends, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. We have the personnel to score. We have the personnel to guard.Chris Bosh scored 26 points for Miami, and Luol Deng had 16. James Ennis dunk with 9:11 left was the Heats last field goal.They played their best basketball in the fourth quarter, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. We got caught up in some tough possessions. Their defence really stepped up and then they started to score and we just werent able to sustain from there.Miami led by 16 in the first half but Golden State closed the second quarter with a 23-8 surge. Draymond Green made two free throws with 9.8 seconds left to cut the Heats lead to 62-61 at the break.Golden state carried the momentum over to the second half. Curry hit three 3 pointers in the third period and his two free throws with 58.2 seconds remaining put Golden State head, 89-82.Second half - everybody was more in tune, Kerr said. We got to their 3-point shooters. We ran them off the line. In the end, we got it rolling.Harrison Barnes finished with 12 points and Andrew Bogut had 10 rebounds for the Warriors. Bogut started after sustaining a right orbital bone contusion on Sunday.The Heat got off to a nice start, opening a 31-22 lead on Mario Chalmers corner 3-pointer with 1:51 left in the first quarter.I dont really get what we think or what we do down the stretch against good teams, the elite teams, Bosh said. For some reason we just forget everything - offence and defence execution.___SUB-100 PERFECTIONThe Warriors improved to 8-0 when limiting opponents to less than 100 points.This game was a huge challenge for us, probably our biggest challenge defensively weve faced all year because they present a lot of problems, Kerr said.SHOOTING WOESAfter a 7-of-10 pace from 3-point range in the first half, Miami shot 3 of 13 in the second half. The Heat made 11 of 40 shots in the second half.TIP-INSWarriors: G Leandro Barbosa played four minutes and scored two points after spraining his right knee in the Warriors win over Orlando on Sunday. ... Early in the first period, Bogut grabbed a defensive rebound, dribbled the length of the court and made a behind-the-back pass from the baseline to Green, who scored on a layup. ... F David Lee (strained left hamstring) missed his 12th straight game.Heat: F-C Chris Andersens injury woes continue. Andersen sat out Tuesdays game after injuring his left ankle early in Miamis win over Charlotte on Sunday. Earlier in the season, Andersen missed four games because of bruised ribs. ... G Dwyane Wade (left hamstring) missed his seventh straight game. ... Norris Cole returned to the starting lineup after missing the previous two games because of a dislocated left middle finger.UP NEXTWarriors: Visit Orlando on Wednesday.Heat: Visit New York on Sunday. . Brad Malone had the other goal for the Monsters (1-1-0), while Elliott chipped in an assist for a three-point night and the games first star. Bryan Lerg also had two assists. Corban Knight and Max Reinhart scored for the Heat (1-1-0), who opened their season Friday with a 5-2 win over the Monsters in Cleveland. . The announcement was made by the hall on Friday, March 14. She joins Switzerlands Denise Biellmann as this years inductees to the Hall, based in Colorado Springs, CO. . First reported by FOX Sports Ken Rosenthal, its unknown if the impetus for the deferral proposal came from players or management, but it never left the preliminary stages. . A person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press the Steelers will part ways with the former Pro Bowler, a move that hardly serves as a surprise after fifth-year linebacker Jason Worilds agreed to accept a "transition player" tag last week. . Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves to backstop the Penguins to a 2-1 victory over the Flames, handing Calgary its team record sixth consecutive home regulation loss.INDIANAPOLIS -- Jacques Villeneuve is ready to make an IndyCar comeback. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports said Wednesday it has hired Villeneuve to race in this years Indianapolis 500, 19 years after the Canadian driver first drank the milk in Victory Lane. "IndyCar is growing again and thats why last year when I started watching races again, every time I watched I felt almost angry I wasnt there," the 1995 race winner said on a satellite hookup from France during a news conference held at the teams Indy headquarters. At age 42, Villeneuve seemed content being a television analyst, musician and RallyCross driver. But when Schmidt and co-owner Rick Peterson, also from Canada, made a serious offer, he couldnt refuse. The 500 is scheduled for May 25. Villeneuve certainly has a compelling resume. As an Indy rookie in 1994, he qualified fourth and finished second to Al Unser Jr., and was named the races rookie of the year. The next season, the reigning CART rookie of the year was even better. He qualified fifth at Indy, forced Scott Goodyear into a costly mistake on the final restart and eventually held off Christian Fittipaldi to become the first and only Canadian winner of the race. Villeneuve completed all 400 laps at Indy in those two starts and won the 1995 CART title, too. But after starting 33 races, winning six poles and five races in two IndyCar seasons, Villeneuve had a chance to become an international star. So he headed to Europe and joined Formula One -- the series that made his late father, Gilles, a household name. Like his dad, who died in a 1982 F1 qualifying crash, Villeneuve excelled on the world stage. In 163 career starts between 1996 and 2006, the younger Villeneuve reached the podium 23 times, won 11 races, 13 poles and claimed the 1997 world championship. At that point, American open-wheel racing wasnt even on the radar. His journey back to North America began in 2007 when Villeneuve made the move to American stock cars. Over the next seven seasons, he dabbled in Sprint Cup, Natiionwide and Le Mans series as well as sports cars.dddddddddddd Villeneuve regained interest in IndyCars last season as he watched how close and competitive the races had become. To him, it reminded him of the series he left almost two decades earlier. Suddenly, he was interested in making a return -- if he could find the right car and the right team. "To get this opportunity is a gift," Villeneuve said. "A lot of people say when you have kids, you slow down. I want my kids to see me race." Schmidt is the winningest team owner in Indy Lights history and already employs two full-time drivers in the better-known IndyCar series -- Russias Mikhail Aleshin and Frances Simon Pageland. In previous years, Schmidt has always found a way to compete at Indy. Getting Villeneuve might be the biggest coup of all for his low-budget team. "Indy is a special place. We go there not to exist but to win the race," Schmidt said. "To see a guy that finished second and finished first there, I dont think hes going to have any problem going back." Villeneuve becomes the fifth 500 winner on this years entry list. The others are three-time winner Helio Castroneves of Brazil, two-time winner Scott Dixon of New Zealand, 2000 winner Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia and Brazils Tony Kanaan, the defending champ. Another trip to Victory Lane would give Villeneuve two more milestones. He would break Al Unsers record for the longest gap between first and last victories. Unser went 17 years between his first Indy crown in 1970 and his record-tying fourth win in 1987. Villeneuve also would break Gordon Johncocks record for the longest gap between first and second wins at Indy, 1973 and 1982. Villeneuve isnt motivated by records. He wants to win. "Im a racer," he said, explaining he does not plan to retire anytime soon. "Ive got to find ways to get better and better and better, and Im going there with a team thats very experienced and has been very successful as well." ' ' 'urn to practice Wednesday.___AP NFL website:
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