Dwyane Wade scored 26 points, Joe Johnson made a 3-pointer on his first shot in a Heat uniform during a big game-opening run, and Miami beat the Knicks, 98-81, at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night.

Johnson was in the starting lineup a day after signing with the Heat and contributed to their 13-2 burst to start the game, a lead they never relinquished.

Hassan Whiteside added 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Heat, who matched a franchise record with their fifth straight victory in New York. Luol Deng scored 15 points and Johnson finished with 12.

Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points for the Knicks, who have lost 14 of 17. Robin Lopez had 14 points and 14 rebounds.

Miami had dropped two in a row but made a nice pickup during that stretch Saturday with the signing of Johnson, a seven-time All-Star who had been waived by the Nets after agreeing to a contract buyout.

Johnson picked the Heat in part because of his relationships with fellow veterans such as Wade and Amare Stoudemire, and he fit nicely in the lineup with them while the bench got big contributions from Whiteside and Justise Winslow, who grabbed 13 rebounds.

Some loud ‘‘Let’s go Heat!’’ chants broke out at Madison Square Garden, where the Heat built a few big leads, let it get close a couple times, and finally pulled away to improve to 14-0 when holding opponents below 90 points.

Wizards 113, Cavaliers 99 — Taking advantage of a rare day off for LeBron James, Washington got a much-needed victory, beating visiting Cleveland behind John Wall’s 21 points, 13 assists, and 7 rebounds.

Wall made 8 of 11 shots and came out on top in his matchup against opposing point guard Kyrie Irving, who wound up with 28 points and six assists on 9-of-20 shooting.

At one point late in the third quarter, Wall had the same number of assists as the entire Cavaliers team (12), and he sat out the fourth quarter. The effort did not sit well with Cleveland’s J.R. Smith.

‘‘If we’re going to play with a lack of energy . . . and come out and play the way we did today,’’ Smith declared, ‘‘we shouldn’t be who we are and be in these uniforms.’’

Smith, who had 8 points and four rebounds in 18 minutes, continued: ‘‘We can’t play basketball like this going down the stretch. . . . You talk about contending or being a championship contender and you’re blown out . . . and get thrashed, make it look good at the end. We can’t do that. If we’re serious about who we’re supposed to be, we can’t do this.’’

It was the second consecutive loss for Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland, which is in the middle of a stretch of three games in four days.

That busy schedule was one of the reasons coach Tyronn Lue gave for resting James, who had skipped only one other game this season, on Dec. 5 at Miami.

Already ahead by nine at halftime, the Wizards broke things open with a 9-0 run to start the second half, taking a 72-54 lead on a 3-pointer by Otto Porter Jr., who wound up scoring 21. When Porter and Wall then made consecutive 3s, Washington’s margin grew to 25 points (88-63) with under five minutes remaining in the third quarter, and that was pretty much that.

It helped, of course, that James was sitting at the far end of the visitor’s sideline in sweats. While Lue addressed other players during a first-quarter timeout, James meandered over to greet former Cavaliers teammate Drew Gooden, who’s now a reserve with the Wizards.

The teams play each other again Friday night in Cleveland.

Trail Blazers 111, Pacers 102 — Damian Lillard had 33 points and five rebounds to lead Portland in Indianapolis.

CJ McCollumn and Gerald Henderson each scored 19 points for the Trail Blazers, who have won eight of nine games.

Monta Ellis had 18 points and Jordan Hill added 15 off the bench for the Pacers, who have lost three of four games.

Hawks 87, Hornets 76 — Kent Bazemore scored 14 points and Al Horford had 13 points and tied a season high with 16 rebounds to help host Atlanta beat Charlotte.

Marvin Williams finished with 16 points and Jeremy Lin scored 15 for Charlotte, which trailed the entire game.

The Hornets were trying to be the first Charlotte team since 1996-97 to win eight games in February.

They pulled within two with seven minutes left but couldn’t rally after scoring a season-worst 9 points in the first quarter.

Kemba Walker, who was leading the Eastern Conference with a 24.1 points per game scoring average this month, finished with nine points on 3 for 15 shooting.

Pistons 114, Raptors 101 — Andre Drummond had 15 points and 18 rebounds as host Detroit took advantage of Kyle Lowry’s absence to beat Toronto.

Lowry sat out for the first time all season because the Raptors wanted to rest him after a 43-point performance against Cleveland on Friday.

Detroit (31-29) won its fourth straight game and moved into a virtual tie with Charlotte (30-28) and Chicago (30-28) for seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

The Raptors had their four-game winning streak snapped.

The score was actually tied at 52 at halftime before the Pistons broke it open with a 37-point third quarter. All five Detroit starters scored in double figures in the game.

Terrence Ross scored 27 points for the Raptors.

Magic 130, 76ers 116 — Rookie Mario Hezonja dunked four seconds into his first NBA start, finishing with 13 points, and host Orlando led all the way in defeating Philadelphia.

Nik Vucevic and Victor Oladipo scored 28 points each and Aaron Gordon added a career-high 22 for the Magic.

Jahlil Okafor scored 26 points for the 76ers, who lost their eighth straight.

Starting in place of injured forward Evan Fournier, Hezonja’s game-opening baskets got the Magic off to an 11-0 start and they shot 65 percent (30 for 46) in dominating the first half.

Oladipo, Vucevic, and Gordon all reached double figures in a 40-point first quarter, Orlando’s highest-scoring quarter of the season.

Mavericks 128, Timberwolves 101 — Chandler Parsons scored 29 points as host Dallas beat Minnesota.

Parsons scored 13 straight Dallas points in a stretch covering the second and third quarters to help the Mavericks restore a 20-point lead they built in the first 11 minutes of their sixth straight victory against Minnesota.

Two nights after scoring 27 points to help Dallas rally from 23 down in the second quarter of an overtime victory against Denver, Parsons was 10 of 15 from the field, made four of seven from 3-point range and hit all five of his free throws.

Shabazz Muhammad scored 24 points to lead the Timberwolves, who dropped to 1-10 on the second night of a back-to-back after rallying for a win at New Orleans.

Dirk Nowitzki and Parsons sparked the quick start, both scoring 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 2 of 3 from 3-point range, in the first quarter. The Mavericks went up, 39-19, on Nowitzki’s layup for his last points of the game with 1:15 left in the first quarter.