MIAMI — The chants started raining down in the fourth quarter. “We want Boston,” the Miami Heat crowd chanted over and over again.
The fans’ wishes have come true. And this year’s first round will feature a rematch of the past two Eastern Conference finals.
Miami is back in the playoffs despite Jimmy Butler being sidelined for several weeks with a knee sprain.
Tyler Herro scored 24 points and was one assist shy of a triple-double, but rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 21 points and the Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls 112-91 in the play-in tournament to advance to the Eastern -Obtained the last spot in the conference playoffs. Friday night elimination game.
“I appreciate the things you can’t buy, the things you have to earn,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We had to earn this. You can’t influence it. You can’t pay for it. To win it, we really have to come together. And this invitation to dance. We had to do it the hard way just to get the first tickets for.
Kevin Love added 16 points and Bam Adebayo added 13 points for Miami, which suffered a crushing defeat against the Celtics, who are the favorites to win the NBA title.
The Heat are once again the No. 8 seed, just like last year when they survived the play-ins and advanced to the NBA Finals.
“Ultimately, we need to bring the culture and toughness of the Miami Heat,” Jaquez said. “We have two games in Boston. We have to set the tone very early and impose our will on them and make it really physical.”
They overwhelmed the Bulls with a 19-0 run in the first quarter and erased all doubts with a 14-0 run midway through the second half. Herro had 10 rebounds and nine assists, and the Heat eliminated the Bulls for the second straight year in the East’s final play-in game.
For the Bulls, DeMar DeRozan had 22 points and Nikola Vucevic had 16 points, 14 rebounds and five assists.
Coby White scored 13 points for Chicago, which didn’t bat a single day over .500 all season and was on its way to becoming just the fifth team in the past 35 years to make the playoffs.
The Heat’s defense carried the day, as Chicago shot just 38 percent.
“These games are going to be like that,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “It’s going to be ugly, it’s going to be awful. Could we have improved more in those areas? Probably. I can’t say we were perfect. I thought our players were trying to compete.”
The 19-0 run matched Miami’s two other longest scoring streaks in a season – putting the Heat on top and turning an 11-6 deficit into an early 25-11 lead. Ta.
Jaquez and Nikola Jovic combined for 11 points in the outburst, giving Miami a 17-point lead at the end of the first quarter and pushing the lead to 20 points in the second.
It was rare for a decent offense to continue on such a spirited and gutsy night where win or go home was decided.
The Heat scored just 13 points in the second game, but still took a 47-37 lead into the half as the Bulls were even colder from the field.
Chicago started 5-4 and went 8-for-39 in the second half.
The Heat started 9-8 and finished the first half 9-35.
As for how bad it was, Chicago missed 14 of 15 shots down the stretch, while Miami was 0 of 8 and 0 of 6. But the Heat made two big runs and are now back in the No. 8 seed. This is the machine I rode all the way to the NBA Finals last season.
The matchup will be much more difficult this time around against a Boston team that won an NBA-high 64 games this season and is still smart after losing at home to the Heat in Game 7 of last year’s East Finals.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to make the playoffs,” Spoelstra said. “I’m grateful to this locker room for giving me this opportunity. And I think they appreciate it, too.”
