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 That's because Chris Bosh and Norris Cole came up big, and James came on strong down the stretch to lead the Heat to a 104-94 victory on Friday night.
James scored 25, Bosh added 20 points and 19 rebounds, and the Heat did enough at the end to pull this one out after delivering the most lopsided playoff win in franchise history in the previous game.
Shaking off a shove to the court that earned Nazr Mohammed an ejection and James an accusation of flopping from Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, the four-time MVP came through by scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Cole matched his postseason career high with his second straight 18-point performance, and the Heat pulled out a tight win after blasting the Bulls 115-78 on Wednesday.
"Nothing is going to be easy in this series," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Tonight, we didn't play particularly well and a lot of that was due to Chicago. There was a lot of ebb and flow to the game until we got it going in the fourth quarter."
This time, Chicago refused to go quietly. Never mind that the Bulls were coming off the worst playoff loss in franchise history. Put aside that the ailing Luol Deng and injured Kirk Hinrich (calf) remained sidelined, not to mention Derrick Rose, and the Bulls had to go without Mohammed after he was ejected.
In the end, it was the Heat grinding out the victory.
"You can't win a championship being pretty and shiny," Bosh said. "You're going to have to get dirty. You're going to have to play physical. You're going to have to dive on the floor. You're going to have to do things that are extremely tough.
"I think people forget just two years ago we were a half-court, grind-it-out kind of team that was trying to beat you down. Just because we've moved to more of a free-flowing offense, we're more spread a little bit, that doesn't mean that we are just a run-and-gun team."
The Heat prevailed on a night when James was off target most of the way, hitting just 6 of 17 shots and even getting blocked on a layup by Nate Robinson in the third quarter, and Wade attempted just seven shots.
But James and Cole hit two big 3-pointers, Bosh perked up after two quiet games, finishing one rebound shy of the club playoff record, and Miami's bench outscored Chicago's 36-8.
"For (Bosh) to have 19 rebounds and for Norris to come off the bench and defend the way he did against Nate and also contribute offensively -- a big-time drive in the fourth and a big-time 3 as well," James said. "Those two guys were the reason we won the game."
Carlos Boozer led Chicago with 21 points. Robinson and Jimmy Butler each scored 17. Joakim Noah added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Marco Belinelli had 16 points, but the Bulls couldn't pull this one out.
They were within 85-83 when Cole scored on a finger roll with about four minutes left, and Miami started to take control from there. James answered a 3-pointer by Belinelli with one of his own, and after Boozer hit a jumper for Chicago, Cole buried another 3 for the Heat to make it 96-88 with 1:48 remaining.
Finally, the Heat could breathe a little easier.
[to top of second column] |
Playing in Chicago for the first time since their 27-game win streak ended there, the Heat got all they could handle.
The Bulls made it clear early on they were going to put up a fight, and that had nothing to do with all the pushing and shoving.
Yes, there was plenty of that again. After Noah and Taj Gibson got ejected in Game 2, things got tense early in this one.
There was Miami's Chris Andersen landing on a driving Robinson late in the first quarter, and Noah giving the Heat forward a shove while he was still down.
Things reached a boiling point early in the second.
With James dribbling upcourt, Mohammed said he reached in because he wanted to take a foul and stop a potential break. Their arms got tangled. Mohammed fell, and when he got up, he gave James a hard shove to the court.
Both players picked up technicals. Mohammed got tossed with 9:29 left in the half, saying he didn't deserve it. He did, however, point the finger at himself for delivering that shove, but he also insinuated that James flopped.
"I mean you saw the play," Mohammed said, laughing.
Thibodeau came right out and said James did just that.
"From my angle, I just saw a guy basically, flop," Thibodeau said. "And I'm going to leave it at that."
James sat there for a few moments before his teammates helped him up. He opted not to retaliate.
"I'm here to play basketball," he said.
For the Bulls, the ejection forced an already short-handed team to get by without another player.
"That's the way our league is now," Robinson said. "It's not like back in the day when Isiah Thomas and guys damn near had fights back in the day and nobody used to get kicked out. But you've got to play through it."
NOTES: Gibson said he was not surprised the league fined him $25,000 for the outburst toward an official that led to his ejection from Game 2. He also sounded relieved that the punishment from the league on Friday was not worse. "I knew I was going to get hit," he said. "I was just hoping it wasn't a suspension, but I deserved (the fine)." ... Bulls great Scottie Pippen got a loud ovation when he presented the game ball before the opening tip. ... Has this been a physical series? Despite all the pushing and shoving in the first two games, Heat F Udonis Haslem said before this one that idea was being "overexaggerated." He added, "Everybody wants to say it's physical, but the Clippers and Memphis just got over a physical series, and everybody thought that was fun to watch. Now this is a physical series. It's just two teams playing at a high level, and that's it."
[Associated
Press; By ANDREW SELIGMAN]
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