Heat defeat the Bulls 90-83! What an absolutely amazing game for the Heat, this was one of their best defensive performances of the year. At one point in the game, the Bulls led by as much as 17 points in the first half, but the Heat came back and just simply outplayed the bulls in the second half on both offense and defense, despite the Bulls out-rebounding the Heat 56-43. Dwyane Wade did infact start tonight, however he was wearing a brace which really hindered his performance, but he still managed to pull off some amazing plays including a monster reverse 180 jam which will be on all the highlight reels. Wade had 10 points, 8 assists, and 4 rebounds shooting 4-10 from the field. Wang ZhiZhi was activated earlier today and Udonis Haslem was placed on the IL due to a knee sprain. This was the first time ZhiZhi stepped on to the court as a Miami Heat player, he played a total of 4 minutes and went 0-2 from the field with 1 defensive rebound. He has a lot of work to do this entire season and I really don't see him being ready to play his best until next season. Lamar Odom and Brian Grant were the true stars tonight and lead the Heat to this shocking win against the Bulls. Lamar Odom had 25 points with 13 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals while shooting 10-18 from the field and 2-4 from beyond the arc. Brian Grant had 18 points with 12 rebounds (3 offensive) shooting 7-11 from the field. Brian pulled off some clutch plays in the final quarter with some super-human offensive rebounds and free throws to guarantee the win. Eddie Jones played very well tonight, especially considering the fact that he was playing and had the flu! EJ had 12 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals. Tonight was yet another very disapointing performance from Caron Butler, I just don't know what's going on. He just can't get back the drive that he had last year, he only scored 2 points shooting a terrible 1-9 from the field. He also had 3 rebounds with 2 of them being offensive and he also had 2 assists and 1 steal. He can't stay like this forever, he is bound to get back to his old self one of these days, but I won't be surprised if Rasual Butler is starting in his place tomorrow night against the knicks. Rafer Alston had 8 points and 4 assists shooting only 2-10 from the field, both of those shots being from downtown and he earned two more at the free throw line. Rasual Butler had another great performance and is really proving himself as a player who can come off the bench and completely change the course of the game. He had a total of 11 points, 9 of those coming from 3 point range. Rasual also had 4 defensive rebounds . Samaki Walker also got some game time, albeit not very long, he was still in there during crucial periods and his rebounding really helped out. He scored 4 points, two of those coming from the free throw line and he had 4 rebounds, 1 of those being offensive. Malik Allen was also in the game for a very short time, only 4 minutes, and the most action he saw was setting a couple of picks, nothing more. Kirk Hinrich led the bulls with 16 points and 6 rebounds, Jerome Williams had 14 points and a massive 16 rebounds (4 offensive), Antonio Davis also had 14 points as well 13 total rebounds with 6 of those being offensive and he also had 6 assists, Eddy Curry had 13 points and 6 rebounds, Kendall Gill had 12 points with 7 rebounds; the biggest disappointment of the night was Jamal Crawford only scoring 8 points despite being in the game for 44 minutes, however he did make up for it with 12 assists . The first half was just total dominance by the Bulls, the Heat went more than 6 minutes in the second quarter without even scoring 1 point, but after a timeout things turned around and they went on a 15-2 run and came back in the second half. For most of the third and early fourth quarters, the game was very close until the Heat slowly pulled away in the final minutes with Brian Grant securing the win with two free throws and Hinrich committing a very stupid turnover by stepping out of bounds with something like 13 minutes left on the clock. The Heat shock 42.3% from the field as opposed to the Bulls shooting 39.5%. The defensive performance by the Heat in the second half was outstanding, if they can play as well as they did in the second half tonight against the Knicks tomorrow, it's going to be a great game. Great job HEAT! Final score: Heat 90 - Bulls 83
It's 33-45 Bulls at the end of the first half, Odom hit a 3 with less than a second left before the half ended, but it was waved off due to a shot clock violation. Wade had a monster jam, it is definitely going to be one of the top 10 plays of the week on Inside Ticket, most likely the dunk of the night too, so watch for it later on NBA.com. The Heat were on a 7-2 run going into the half, if they can maintain it they will be able to make this a very close game coming out of the half.
WOW is all I can say! The 3rd quarter just ended and the Heat are leading 63-62 after an amazing 17-4 run. Odom has 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists at the end of the 3rd.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting deestillballin:</div><div class="quote_post">Zhzhi fainly suits up? should be a doozey of a game.</div> It already happened Dee. :thumbsup:
looks like Lamar Odom is finally playing to his potenial 25 points 13 rebounds 8 assists on 10-17 shooting
I'm certainly hoping Odom will, he would've never done so if he stayed with the Clippers. He lay back there because he was one of the superstars, here he needs to work extra hard because of the lack of defense and rebounding ability. He'll add greatly to the offense of the likes of the king of Lockdown, Caron Butler and the mad shot of Dwayne Wade. Hopefully they won't be the worst in the league. That oughta go to Atlanta.
