The Miami Heat recorded their most lopsided playoff win in franchise history and inflicted the heaviest such defeat on Chicago by beating the Bulls 115-78 on Wednesday, squaring their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final series 1-1.
Nine technical fouls, two ejections and a lot of pushing and shoving also injected some venom into the series, as the Heat turned what was a close game in the first half into a blowout.
In Wednesday’s other game, the Golden State Warriors withstood a big comeback from San Antonio to beat the Spurs 100-91 and also square their series.
Photo: Reuters
The second half in Miami was embarrassing for the Bulls. The Heat led 42-38 with 3 minutes, 42 seconds left in the first half, before going on a remarkable 62-20 run.
Miami’s Ray Allen scored 21 points in only 19 minutes, LeBron James finished with 19 points and nine assists, and the Heat led by as many as 46 points.
The Heat lost home-court advantage when they dropped Game 1, but Wednesday’s domination made the reigning NBA champions look like the clear-cut team to beat in this title race once again.
“No matter if you win by 20, 30 or one point, it’s a 1-1 series,” James said. “They came in and did their job. They got one on our floor and took home court. So we’ve got to try to go to Chicago and get it back.”
Game 3 is tonight in Chicago, where the Heat will have to win at least one game if they are going to win the series.
Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson were ejected in the fourth quarter for Chicago, and the league will almost certainly review some of the things said and done in a game that was close for the first 20 minutes. The Bulls were called for six player technicals, the most by any team in a playoff game since Boston had that many against Indiana in 2005.
“We got sidetracked and you can’t do that,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We allowed frustration to carry over to the next play ... You come in here, you’re not going to get calls. That’s reality.”
Bulls forward Carlos Boozer, who scored only eight points, said he did not fault his teammates for speaking their minds — although cameras suggested that Gibson’s language was more than a little colorful.
“Things don’t go your way, you’re competitors, you want to go out there and do everything you can when you feel you’re being cheated,” Boozer said. “You’re going to say something about it, but regardless, we don’t place the blame on anybody else, we put it on our shoulders and we’ll play better.”
Marco Belinelli scored 13 for the Bulls, who got 12 from Noah and 11 from Robinson.
Golden State’s Klay Thompson scored 34 points to lead his team to a series-squaring road victory over San Antonio.
Thompson, who scored 29 points in the first half, added 14 rebounds for Golden State, who snapped a 30-game losing streak in the Alamo City. The Warriors had not won in San Antonio since Feb. 14, 1997.
Stephen Curry added 22 for the visitors, while Harrison Barnes had 13 points, Carl Landry 10 and Andrew Bogut had six points and 11 rebounds.
Tim Duncan scored 23 points and Tony Parker added 20 for San Antonio. Manu Ginobili had 12 points and Kawhi Leonard had 11 points and 12 rebounds.
The Warriors host Game 3 today.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but