Bulls beat the Heat again, 93-89
No one would try to argue the Bulls can match Miami when it comes to offensive options.
No matter whether LeBron James, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh has the ball for the Heat late in a game, there are two all-stars as potential pass receivers.
As Derrick Rose dribbled down the shot clock late in a tie game Thursday night, the eyes of all three Miami stars were focused squarely on him. Rose started to drive, saw what was in front of him, and dished it to Luol Deng in the corner.
Deng has never been an all-star, but he has had a pretty fair NBA career and played extremely well in the second half of this game.
So it was fitting that Deng drained the go-ahead 3-pointer with 16 seconds left, allowing the Bulls to take down the Heat for the second time this season 93-89 before a frenzied crowd at the United Center.
“Just read the game. The game told me to pass,” Rose said of the final play. “Me driving to the left, D-Wade stepped up a lot. Usually people don't leave the corner. But he left and I just passed to Lu.”
Added Deng, “D-Rose has been doing that all year, making big shots. They were so concerned about him, they overplayed him, and Derrick made the right play.”
These teams play just once more in Miami on March 6, so the Bulls (39-17) clinched the season series and first tiebreaker. They trail the Heat by one in the loss column.
Miami is 0-5 against the best teams in the East, the Bulls and Boston, although just one of those contests was a Miami home game.
“We knew it would come down to the end,” Wade said. “With upper-echelon teams in the East, it will come down to the end and who will make plays. They did. It was a hard-fought battle.”
Rose took another step toward winning the league's MVP award, finishing with 26 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Deng scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half and added 10 rebounds. Carlos Boozer contributed 16 points and 9 boards.
Wade led Miami (42-16) with 34 points, while James added 29. Both stars shot at least 50 percent from the field, but Bosh was a miserable 1-for-18 from the floor for 7 points.
“There's no way you can recoup C.B. tonight,” James said. “He just didn't have the touch tonight.”
The teams took turns taking control in the fourth quarter. The Bulls led 80-71 with less than eight minutes remaining. After spending most of the third quarter complaining to the officials, Miami produced its own run thanks to a flurry of foul calls. The Heat made 8 free throws in a span of 1:46 and went ahead 84-80 with 4:52 remaining.
The Bulls answered with a 9-0 run, which began with a Kyle Korver 3-pointer and ended with a long Rose jumper to make it 89-84 with 1:06 left. Miami tied it on a Wade fadeaway and James bank shot and 3-point play with 36.8 seconds remaining.
After Deng's go-ahead 3-pointer, James missed badly on a 3-point attempt and a Korver free throw with 9.4 seconds on the clock ended the scoring.
Deng had just 2 points at halftime, but his second-half performance was reminiscent of the great playoff series he had against Miami in 2007.
“I felt like I needed to be more involved,” he said. “One way I did that was just bring more energy. I'm going to play defense the whole time, but I just wanted to come with a lot of energy offensively and I was crashing the boards the whole time.”
The Bulls were coming off a putrid performance in Toronto on Wednesday, and early on it looked as though Miami would run them off the court. The Heat piled up 16 fastbreak points in the opening quarter and took an early 31-23 lead.
The reserves helped settle the Bulls down, but they still trailed by 11 early in the third quarter. As Rose and Deng turned up the intensity, the Bulls used a 15-2 run to surge into the lead.