Heat back in town to face Bulls
If the Bulls had beaten Toronto on Wednesday night, they would’ve had a chance to pull even in the loss column with Miami for second place in the Eastern Conference.
They could still win the season series, though, by pulling out a win against the star-studded Heat on Thursday night at the United Center.
The Bulls couldn’t slow down the Raptors on Wednesday, but Miami had the night off, which allowed some of the Heat players to think ahead after beating Sacramento on Tuesday.
“We look forward to the challenge,” LeBron James told reporters in Miami. “We looked at the defensive standings. You include Boston, we’re all one, two and three in almost all the major categories.
“So it could be an offensive struggle for both teams, because both teams love to play on that side of the floor. … It’s going to be fun.”
When these teams met at the United Center on Jan. 15, James sat out with a sprained ankle and Chris Bosh left in the third quarter with an ankle injury. Bosh later accused Bulls rookie Omer Asik of needless hustle for diving after a loose ball on the play Bosh was hurt.
The game turned into a Chicago shootout between local natives Derrick Rose (34 points) and Dwyane Wade (33 points). The Bulls led most of the way, by as many as 14 points, but Wade almost rescued Miami with 3 late 3-pointers.
Trailing by 1, Kyle Korver knocked down a 3-pointer off an offensive rebound with 25 seconds left and the Bulls won 99-96.
“We feel we dropped a game when we played them in Chicago,” Bosh said. “We weren’t at 100 percent. They weren’t at 100 percent. Now it’s a different circumstance. They’re getting back to their full roster of players and it’s the second half of the season.
“Everybody has that in their minds now. It’s like, ‘OK, this thing is shaping up.’ We don’t want to give anybody confidence. We want to show we can go in there and be a handful when we play them on their court.”
Miami has been on another roll, winning 11 of its last 12 games. Shooting guard Mike Miller (ear infection) is out for Thursday’s game, but Heat swingman James Jones won the 3-point contest at all-star weekend, so outside shooting isn’t a problem.
The other big news Thursday is the NBA trade deadline, which hits at 2 p.m. Central time.
The Bulls have the means to make a small move and could use either an upgrade at shooting guard or another strong defender. There was nothing going on as of Wednesday night, however.
Pippen joins TV team:
Bulls legend Scottie Pippen will join television broadcasters Neil Funk and Stacey King for the March 4 game at Orlando, then for every playoff game on Comcast SportsNet.