Bulls complete season sweep of Heat
MIAMI — The Bulls' third straight nail-biting victory over Miami was another great effort by the winners and disappointing for the home team, no doubt.
It didn't seem to be anything worth crying about, though.
Nobody's season ended with the Bulls' 87-86 win at American Airlines Arena on Sunday. Miami did lose its fourth straight game in frustrating fashion.
“There are a couple guys crying in the locker room right now,” Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said in the interview room. “This is painful for every single one of us going through this.”
Miami forward Chris Bosh admitted he almost cried, then tried to sum up the feelings of his teammates.
“Just to come up short again and again, it hurts,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to let the pain teach you something.”
Dwyane Wade responded to the loss with some negative energy, sarcastically riding the “us against the world” mind-set.
“The Miami Heat is exactly where everyone wanted, losing games,” Wade said. “The world's better now because the Heat is losing.”
The postgame chatter from the Bulls wasn't nearly as entertaining, because all they did was take care of business by staying focused on the small details.
After trailing by 10 points in the first half, the Bulls (43-18) stormed back with a strong fourth quarter and led 84-79 with 2:30 left after Luol Deng dropped in a tough running jumper in the lane.
Miami (43-20) responded with a rare stretch of clutch play. After LeBron James hit a jumper, the Heat moved the ball well and got a tying 3-pointer from Mario Chalmers, then Chalmers broke loose for a driving lay-in that put the home team up 86-84 with 25.8 seconds remaining.
Deng was fouled on the other end and hit the first of 2 free throws. When he missed the second, Joakim Noah spun around James and Erick Dampier to tip the rebound back to Deng.
He was hit from behind by Mike Miller, got 2 more free throws, and he put them in to send the Bulls ahead by 1 with 15.9 seconds on the clock.
“To me, that's the play of the game, that tip,” Deng said. “I just saw the ball and I went for it. I thought I got pushed and got a chance to redeem myself.”
Noah was willing to credit good fortune with the game-changing rebound. But he obviously had a hand in what happened.
“The basketball gods were on our side,” Noah said. “Usually I try to go strong to the middle. I spun to the baseline, got a good roll and got my hand on it.”
Miami had another chance and chose to let James create a shot. Bosh set a screen and the Bulls switched defensively, willing to let the 7-foot Noah match up with the two-time most valuable player.
James made his move, but Noah kept moving his feet and forced James to miss a tough running bank shot.
Ronnie Brewer had the rebound torn from his hands and Wade chased it down in the corner. His last-second heave bounced harmlessly off the front of the rim and the Bulls were 3-for-3 this season against the Heat's alignment of stars.
“I was trying to be aggressive, knowing I've got a guy (Noah) I can beat,” James said. “I'm using my quickness to get the ball on the backboard. … I've made plenty of left-hand layups over bigs before.”
It was third time this week James came up short with a chance to tie or give his team the lead in the waning seconds.
“I told my team I'm not going to continue to fail them late in games,” James said. “I put a lot of blame on myself tonight, just telling the guys I just keep failing them late in games and I won't continue to do that.”
Derrick Rose hit 12 of 23 shots for a game-high 27 points. He scored 6 straight points late to send the Bulls to an 82-76 lead with 3:32 left. Deng added 18, while Carlos Boozer had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
For Miami, James scored 26 points, Bosh 23 and Wade 20. Chalmers added 11, but the rest of the Heat players combined for just 6 points.
Asked if he improved his chances to be this season's MVP, Rose just shrugged.
“I'm not even thinking about that,” he said. “Winning takes care of everything. We're happy about it, but our whole mind-set right now is the next game.”