Eastern Conference Race Tightens As Heat Handle Bulls, 83-72
MIAMI (AP) — The earliest Miami and Chicago could meet again is Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Good thing. The tempers could use a little time to cool down. And after a game filled with shoves and takedowns, the race for the No. 1 seed in the East is still going strong.
LeBron James had 27 points and 11 rebounds, Dwyane Wade scored 18 points and Miami tightened up the race in the East by beating the Bulls 83-72 in a scuffle-filled matchup Thursday night.
Mario Chalmers scored 16 points and Udonis Haslem grabbed 10 rebounds for Miami, which held the Bulls to a season-low point total and moved within 1½ games of Chicago.
John Lucas scored 16 points for Chicago, which was again without reigning MVP Derrick Rose because of injuries. Joakim Noah scored 15 points, Luol Deng added 11 and Carlos Boozer had 10 for the Bulls, who split four games with Miami this season.
The teams combined for four technicals, two flagrant fouls and Miami reserve James Jones was ejected.
But above all else, Miami decided this one with defense. The Bulls went up 21-20 on a layup by Deng with 3:36 left in the first quarter, making them 10 of 14 from the field at that point. They shot 15 for 56 — 27 percent — the rest of the way.
Chicago (47-16) has games with Dallas, Indiana and Cleveland left, while Miami (45-17) still has matchups with Washington (twice), Houston and Boston.
In case anyone forgot that the Heat and Bulls don't particularly care for one another, the refresher courses came often in this one.
The first real salvo came with 6:05 left in the first half, when Jones was ejected after being assessed a flagrant-2 for excessive contact against Noah while trying for a rebound. Jones stretched out both arms to move Noah out of the way, making contact around the head.
By the end of the game, that play seemed like a love tap.
Wade and Chicago guard Richard Hamilton — rivals for years — raised the level of angst a few more notches early in the third quarter.
Hamilton led with his elbow and shoulder to create some space, and Wade took exception — so he delivered an elbow and shoulder back, sending the Bulls' guard sprawling to the court. The jousting then turned verbal, enough to merit a technical foul for each, plus a flagrant-1 on Wade.
And then things really got hot a few minutes later, not long after James was pulled down under the basket. James set a screen and was run into by Lucas, who gives up 9 inches and 85 pounds to the two-time NBA MVP. Predictably, Lucas went flying. Even more predictably, Lucas — who was leapfrogged for a dunk by James in Chicago's first trip to Miami this season — got angry.
After Deng fouled Chalmers to stop the play, and reopened a cut over his own left eye in the process, Lucas ran at James and the other eight players on the court at the time quickly converged on the area. It took referees about 5 minutes to sort out the mess, which only resulted in a personal foul on Deng and technicals on Lucas and James (who, upon hearing his name announced, shouted, "For what?).
James shrugged off the next hit, a hard foul by Chicago's Omer Asik about a half-minute later, converting a three-point play in the process.
"A physical Eastern Conference game," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the third quarter in a televised interview. "It's an emotional game, a passionate game."
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