Miami guards Dwayne Wade and Damon Jones put up NBA playoff career-highs in scoring to lead the top-seeded Heat over the New Jersey Nets 116-98 on Sunday.
Shaquille O'Neal, who suffered a deep right thigh bruise a week ago and has been hampered since, finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds in 32 minutes. He was well off his 27.1-point career playoff scoring average, but with the way Miami's backcourt performed, the Heat didn't need a monster game from their center.
Jones scored 30 on 10-for-12 shooting, and was 7-for-9 from 3-point range, getting 14 of his points in the final quarter. And Wade had 32 from 12-for-18 in the field, with eight assists as the Heat had two players score 30 or more in a playoff game for the first time in team history.
Vince Carter had 27 points and 10 rebounds for New Jersey, which won 15 of its final 19 games to get the Eastern Conference's No. 8 seed, but is now 0-4 against Miami this season. Jason Kidd added 18 points.
Bulls 103, Wizards 94
At Chicago, rookie Ben Gordon scored 12 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter to lift the short-handed Bulls to victory over Washington and give Chicago its first playoff victory since the dynasty days of Michael Jordan.
Fellow rookie Andres Nocioni also had a huge game, scoring 25 points and grabbing 18 rebounds.
Gordon has reached double figures in the fourth quarter 22 times this season, but none was bigger than this show. Already short-handed without ailing starters Eddy Curry and Luol Deng, the Bulls looked like they were in trouble with Tyson Chandler in foul trouble.
But just as he's done all season, Gordon was there to carry the Bulls. His late-game heroics have many in the city calling him the next Jordan, as in, "Gordon, rhymes with Jordan."
The loss spoiled a superb night by Larry Hughes, who scored 24 of his 31 points in the first half on 10-of-12 shooting. But the Wizards got little from Gilbert Arenas, who scored nine points -- 16 below his average -- on 3-of-19 shooting, and Antawn Jamison, who had 14 points.
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