NBA Playoffs 2013: Miami Heat vs. Chicago Bulls Recap
By Phil Watson
LeBron James wasn’t his efficient best, but he was enough to lead the Miami Heat back to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third straight year. Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com
The Miami Heat rallied from eight points down heading into the fourth quarter on Wednesday, May 15, holding the short-handed Chicago Bulls to just 14 fourth-period points for a 94-91 win in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
The win gave Miami a five-game win over the gritty Bulls, who led 53-47 at halftime and 77-69 after three quarters.
This series was marked by the Bulls soldiering on without its franchise player—former MVP Derrick Rose missed the entire season recovering from a torn ACL suffered in the first game of last year’s playoffs—and played without another All-Star, small forward Luol Deng, and with another, center Joakim Noah, hobbled by plantar fasciitis.
Still, Chicago put up a much tougher fight against the Heat than anyone could have expected, winning Game 1 on South Beach before Miami came back to close out the series with four straight wins.
The Bulls hung around in part because they got physical with the Heat, most notably in this little exchange between Bulls backup center Nazr Mohammad and Miami superstar LeBron James:
That means that since Feb. 3, the Heat is 45-3 … with two of the three losses coming to the Bulls. This marked the third time in four years that Chicago has been bounced from the playoffs by a James-led team. The Bulls lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round in 2010 and to the Heat in the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals before bowing out in this year’s conference semis.
Game Scores (Miami wins series 4-1)
Game 1 at Miami: Chicago 93, Miami 86
Game 2 at Miami: Miami 115, Chicago 78
Game 3 at Chicago: Miami 104, Chicago 94
Game 4 at Chicago: Miami 88, Chicago 65
Game 5 at Miami: Miami 94, Chicago 91
Series MVP
LeBron James, Miami Heat
(NBA.com photo)
Shocking, I know. But even in a series when he wasn’t at his efficient best—James shot just 43.8 percent from the floor against the Bulls and 35.3 percent from 3-point range—he was still the best player on the floor.
James averaged 23.6 points, seven rebounds, 7.8 assists and 2.2 steals per game, so he had a definite impact on the series. He also averaged a team-high 41.7 minutes per game, a particularly high number considering Games 2 and 4 were blowouts with lots of garbage time to be had.
James had an offensive rating of 108.4 in the series (points per 100 possessions) to go with a sterling defensive rating of 95.9 for a solid net of 12.5. His assist percentage was 34.4 percent (stats from NBA.com/stats and basketball-reference.com).
He also had a very nice finish off a Chris Bosh alley-oop pass in Game 5:
Biggest Surprise
Norris Cole, Miami Heat
(NBA.com photo)
Miami’s backup point guard averaged 5.6 points and 2.1 assists in 19.9 minutes per game during the regular season, so getting 11 points a night from Cole against Chicago was … unexpected.
Cole was sizzling hot in the series, hitting 20-of-29 from the floor (69 percent) and an out-of-this world 9-for-11 (81.8 percent) from 3-point range.
He did it by getting more playing time than usual, as coach Erik Spoelstra rewarded Cole’s hot hand with 22.8 minutes per game in the series. Hey, the guy had an ORtg of 116 and a DRtg of 93.9, compared to the 103.4 and 95.8, respectively, put up by starting point guard Mario Chalmers.
Cole came up particularly big in Game 3 in Chicago, scoring 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting:
Biggest Disappointment
Nate Robinson, Chicago Bulls
(NBA.com photo)
After scorching the Brooklyn Nets in Round 1, Robinson plummeted back to earth against the Heat, in part due to all the extra attention Miami paid to the little point guard.
As good as Robinson was against the Nets (50.5 percent from the floor, 36.4 percent from 3, 17 points a game), he was just that bad against the Miami Heat. Robinson still managed to average 15.2 points a game in the series, but he did it on a high volume of attempts. Robinson was only 22-for-66 (33.3 percent) from the floor in the series and his 3-point touch fell to 31.3 percent (10-for-32). In the Heat’s blowout win in Game 4, Robinson put together an 0-for-12 clunker … but at least he had four turnovers in 32 minutes, so he had that going for him.
Considering Robinson had 27 points and nine assists in Chicago’s lone win in the series (highlights below), Miami really clamped down on the free-agent-to-be over the final four games.
What’s Next
Indiana or New York
(Image courtesy sportslogos.net)
The Miami Heat will await the winner of the other Eastern Conference semifinal between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks. Indiana leads the series 3-1 with Game 5 set for Thursday, May 16, at Madison Square Garden.
The Pacers won the season series with the Heat, taking two of the three meetings. Indiana won both home games, 87-77 on Jan. 8 and 102-89 on Feb. 1, while Miami also won at home, 105-91 on March 10.
Against the Knicks, the Heat also lost the regular-season series. New York won three of four, including a pair of wins at Miami—112-92 on Dec. 6 and 102-90 on April 2. The Knicks also won 104-84 at home on Nov. 2, while the Heat’s lone win was a 99-93 decision at New York on March 3.