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Heat welcome Hornets to south Florida

Dec 13, 2010 - 4:09 PM (Sports Network) - The surging Miami Heat are back in south Florida for consecutive games, starting with Monday's bout with the New Orleans Hornets at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Miami will also host LeBron James' former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, on the residency and has ripped off a season-high eight straight victories. In a 104-83 triumph at Sacramento on Saturday in the finale of a perfect four-game road trip, Dwyane Wade led all players with 36 points and James added 25 with 10 rebounds.

Chris Bosh had 14 points and a game-high 17 rebounds. Bosh has averaged 11.0 rebounds in his last five games, including three double-doubles in that span.

"We are getting on the same page. It took time, we knew it was going to take time for everyone to understand the concepts of what we do defensively here, how our rotations work," Wade told NBA.com. "I think we said earlier in the year it would take between 20 to 25 games and we're around that mark."

The Heat, who have won four in a row at home, are riding the longest winning streak since ripping off nine consecutive games from March 20 - April 7, 2010. Wade has scored at least 25 points in each of Miami's last five games and is averaging 29.8 ppg during that stretch.

New Orleans has lost two straight, four of five and eight of its last 11 games, including Sunday's 88-70 setback in Philadelphia.

Chris Paul led the Hornets with 25 points, while David West accounted for nine points and eight rebounds. Trevor Ariza grabbed 10 boards for the Hornets.

"Give them credit. They switched, they're active and athletic," Hornets head coach Monty Williams said. "But we missed a lot of point blank shots and we missed a lot of free throws."

The Hornets were down by a 45-23 score at halftime and shot just 30.4 percent. They fell to 5-6 as the visitor this season and are second in the NBA for fewest points allowed by opponents (91.8 ppg). New Orleans is limiting foes to 43.9 percent shooting, while averaging 45.4 percent from the floor on the offensive end.

New Orleans defeated Miami, 96-93, back on Nov. 5 this season in the Big Easy and has won six of seven and eight of the past 10 meetings between the teams.