Heat hold home court, go up 2-1.
Third quarter
Bosh starts off the quarter with two quick buckets from mid-range. He is now 8-11 from the field with 20 points and looking like the Bosh from Game 1.
DRose now getting going, sinking his last three shots after starting off 4-12. Bulls now with a 51-50 lead five minutes into the quarter.
Keith Bogans is straight D-ing up on DWade and not giving up anything. Wade is looking frustrated and out of sync on the court.
The Heat take back the lead after Bibby makes a three-pointer from the left wing, which comes about three minutes after he made his first three from the right wing.
The Heat use great ball movement to go on a 7-0 run midway through the quarter. The run was capped off by a hanging baseline jumper by DWade.
Coach Thibodeau calls a timeout to quiet the crowd and stop the run.
Boozer stops the Heat run after the timeout with a tip-in after a missed lay-up by Luol Deng.
On the first possession for the Heat after the timeout, Wade drives right past Ronnie Brewer and maneuvers a nifty lay-up around Joakim Noah, giving the Heat their largest lead of the night so far 62-55. It might be time for the Bulls to put Bogans back in to guard Wade.
Haslem hits two consecutive shots for the Heat in the last minutes of the quarter. He’s showing that he hasn’t lost his mid-range game even after that long break.
Luol Deng cuts the Heat lead to 68-65 with a three-pointer at the end of the quarter, quieting the Miami crowd in the process.
Fourth quarter
DRose starts off the fourth quarter on the bench for the Bulls, but he’s going to need to get back in the game soon. He’s only 22, so he shouldn’t need that long to regain his stamina. A couple of gulps of Gatorade should do the trick.
After the Heat score 4 points to start the quarter, Thibodeau realizes that he needs DRose in the game, so he calls a timeout to put Rose back in.
Chris Bosh is White Hot for the Heat tonight, draining fall-away jumpers in Noah’s face and finishing tough shots regardless of contact. With seven minutes left in the game, the Heat lead 78-72, and Bosh is 13-18 with 32 points.
The heat defense is looking really sharp and scrappy this quarter with an agile lineup on the court. Haslem and Bosh are in the front-court with Wade, James and Chalmers in the back-court. Every player is crashing the boards, deflecting passes and rotating to cover the open man. With 5:30 remaining in the game, LeBron intercepts a pass then dribbles full-speed ahead into the body of Kyle Korver to finish the lay-up as the refs call on a foul on Korver. LeBron and the Heat arena go nuts simultaneously. Bron completes the And 1 to give the Heat their largest lead of the night 87-74.
The Heat are looking scary good right now on both ends of the floor.
Bulls need a timeout and Thibodeau calls for it with five minutes remaining.
The Bulls come out of the timeout looking to show that they are not going to roll over and die just yet.
They get a couple quick buckets over a two-minute span, but they are rushing shots on offense because time is winding down. The Heat answered back after a timeout called by Spoelstra. The Heat waste time and take care of the ball to close the Bulls out 96-85.
Game summary: Bosh was on fire for the Heat scoring 34 points on 13-18 shooting. The Heat defense was aggressive and scrappy, limiting Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer to a combined 46 points as they both shot 8-19 (29.6 percent), respectively.
Post Game
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra didn’t know who was going to play big this game, but he did know that someone had to step up for them to win the game.
“He [Chris Bosh] came in with a very aggressive mindset. We tried to help him a little bit to give us a little bit more of a variety with our offense, but ultimately it’s about reading the game,” Spoelstra said. “Each game is different. We’ve had different guys step up each game. He put his imprint on the game right from the beginning and that helped to give us relief and keep them [Bulls] honest with some of their coverages.”
Chris Bosh was able to get a rhythm going early and keep it going throughout the game.
“I try every game to come out aggressively,” said Bosh. “I missed some shots, but I felt that they were good shots…Then I got to the free-throw line. I kind of got a little rhythm right there and then after that, I saw the ball go in one time and that was good enough for me.”
Bosh said he wanted to be more aggressive when the team feeds him in the post.
“I just want to try my best to maintain that intensity and keep it going for game four.”
After being asked about what he will be constantly thinking about the next day, MVP Derrick Rose said: “You’re going to miss shots, but our defense, that was the key of the game, where I think we let them shoot 50 percent…and we call ourselves a defensive team. That’s definitely not going to work against a team like that, where they’ve got great players and great shooters.”
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