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Kapono's career high leads Heat past Warriors

Dec 24, 2006 - 5:19 AM MIAMI (Ticker) -- The Golden State Warriors knew it wasn't their night when Jason Kapono started to catch fire.

Kapono scored a career-high 27 points and Dwyane Wade added 18 as the Heat posted a 105-92 victory over the road-weary Warriors.

Alonzo Mourning had 14 points and Udonis Haslem added 13 and 10 rebounds for Miami, which has won five of its last six vs. Golden State.

"We played a great game," Wade said. "Hopefully that will get guys' confidence going into the next couple of games, especially before we hit that long road trip."

Kapono shot 11-of-18 from the field and surpassed his previous high of 25 points against Detroit in 2004.

"I think I got good quality looks," Kapono said. "My teammates did a good job of finding me. I am the type of player that thinks my shot feels good (all the time) even if I miss 10 straight."

The 6-8 forward matched his season high of 19 by halftime, courtesy of a 15-point second quarter when the Heat outscored the Warriors, 30-19, after trailing by one entering the period.

"I think we caught a nice rhythm in the second quarter," Kapono said. "I think guys were trying to find me. I'm just glad that we came out with the win. I think we played really good defense. It's a good solid win and that's all we care about."

"Kapono has been solid on both ends of the court," Heat coach Pat Riley said. "He has been good and been playing very well offensively. He is one of our key guys in the rotation. Whether he plays more minutes is based upon matchups."

James Posey added 13 points for Miami, which shot 49 percent (40-of-82) from the field.

Matt Barnes scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Jason Richardson added 18 points for the Warriors, who finished a six-game road trip 2-4.

"We went 2-4 on the road trip," Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "I am not going to try to get too high or too low over this. We are just going to keep chugging along. We did not play very well (Saturday), but we are going back home."

Mike Dunleavy had 16 points and 11 rebounds for Golden State, which shot just 37 percent (37-of-99) and made only 7-of-27 3-pointers.

"It was tough, we didn't have the energy we had in the previous two wins and Miami had a lot of guys that had a lot of energy," Richardson said.