Miami Heat avenge overtime, defeat the Chicago Bulls at home 83 – 72 – NBA Recap
LeBron James had 27 points and 11 rebounds as the Miami Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls 83-72 here at the American Airlines Arena. Chicago were playing without Derrick Rose once again, who is currently recovering from a twisted ankle. Chicago could have
clinched the number 1 spot in the Eastern Conference with a win on Thursday night but Miami took the match, leaving the race for the # 1 spot still wide open.
It was a very physical game, and tempers ran wild on a number of occasions. All in all, there were 4 technical fouls, two flagrant fouls and Miami player James Jones was ejected from the game in the 1st quarter. It is a good thing that the next
time these two teams have a chance to meet will be the Eastern Conference Finals. And what a series that is going to be.
John Lucas was the leading scorer for the Bulls, with 16 points and 6 rebounds. It was a game ruled by defence as neither team crossed 90 points. Only 28 points were scored in the final quarter. Miami held Chicago to their lowest total of the season.
The game remained very close throughout the 1st half, with Chicago and Miami both taking the lead on different occasions. The largest lead till that point was 5 by Miami, and that too they held only momentarily. The Heat led Chicago 42-40 at halftime.
Miami scored the first 6 points of the 3rd quarter and managed to extend their lead to 64-53 with a three pointer by Mike Miller and 3:17 left in the quarter. The Bulls responded with an 8-2 run to close the period and trailed the Heat 61-66 going
into the final quarter.
The Heat went on a 7-0 run in the early stages of the final quarter to take a 75-65 lead with 6:33 remaining in the game. Later, a hook shot by Joel Anthony gave Miami a 13 point lead, their largest of the night. The Bulls could not come back after that,
as they shot poorly from the floor in the final period and managed to score only 11 points.
Dwyane Wade had 18 points to support LeBron in scoring and Mario Chalmers added 16 points for the Heat.
Joakim Noah had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulls and Luol Deng scored 11 points.
It was a low scoring night for the Bulls and a poor one in shooting. The Bulls were 35.7% from the field and a ridiculous 2 of 16 from the distance. Miami shot 42.1% from the floor and 30.8% from the 3 point line.
The Bulls also failed to make their presence felt on defence, grabbing only 40 rebounds, 5 less than Miami. Those were low numbers for the best defensive team in the league. Miami also outscored them 4-2 in blocks and 6-4 in steals.
Bulls have 3 games remaining in the regular season while Miami have four. The race for the number 1 spot in the Eastern Conference is still on and we will have to wait to find out which of these two teams is going into the playoffs with home court advantage.
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