Chicago – Tyler Hero and the heat moved it quickly from the start. Another such performance could catapult Miami into the playoffs.
Hero scored 38 points and the Heat took control of the Chicago Bulls 109-90 on Wednesday night to advance to the Play-in Tournament.
Hero scored 23 points as Miami grabbed a 71-47 halftime lead, and the Heat knocked out the Bulls from the play-in for the third year in a row. They will play in Atlanta on Friday and give them the opportunity to meet top seed Cleveland in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. The Hawks lost to Orlando on Tuesday.
“We’re just there,” coach Eric Spolstra said. “We didn’t have the luxury of having one game. And you’re in automatically. Everyone felt good about this victory and really did a lot. This doesn’t happen overnight. It feels like a good thing has been going on for the past few weeks.”
It was not the heat to reach this point. There was a standoff with Jimmy Butler, ending with a trade deadline with Golden State in February and a 10-game winning streak in March.
Miami then scored eight of the 12, closing the regular season, finishing 10th in the East, 37-45.
Against Chicago, Hero made his first eight shots, 13 out of 19 shots in the game.
Andrew Wiggins had 20 points and nine rebounds. Bam Adebayo added 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Davion Mitchell tipped in with 15 points and 9 assists.
The Heat has 10 steels and seven blocks, increasing retrieval of all three-game sweeps in the regular season.
Josh Giddy scored 25 points and 10 rebounds for Chicago. Coby White scored 17, but he shot five of his 20, while Nikola Vosevic finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
“We really didn’t have game plan discipline,” White said. “We beat them in the regular season. If we just do the normal thing, we’re good. But obviously, they have people who know what it does. They have a head coach who is one of the best head coaches in the league.
The Bulls arrived within 13 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but closed the rest and missed the playoffs for the third year in a row.
“A lot of us made big buckets at the right time,” Adebayo said.
Hero set the tone and made all eight shots as Heat opened the game in the first half.
He’s barely a single show, with Wiggins earning 12 in the half, and Adebayo added 11 points and 7 rebounds.
