NBA: Heat rebound from loss, beat Bulls by 37 points
MIAMI — It was the most-lopsided postseason win in Heat history, and the most-lopsided postseason loss for the Bulls.
And it might have been actually worse than that sounds.
Ray Allen scored 21 points in 19 minutes, LeBron James finished with 19 points and nine assists, and the Heat led by as many as 46 points on the way to a 115-78 victory on Wednesday in Game 2 of the series, now knotted at one game apiece.
Sure, the Heat have lost home-court advantage in these Eastern Conference semifinals. But an absolute domination of the Bulls made the reigning NBA champions look like the clearcut team to beat in this title race once again.
“We’re still in the hole,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, whose team will need to win at least one game in Chicago to prevail in this series.
Given how one-sided Wednesday’s game was, that wouldn’t seem like too tall a challenge.
Chicago’s Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson were ejected in the fourth quarter, 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 before turning into an embarrassment for the Bulls and an embarrassment of riches for the Heat.
Chicago was called for six player technicals, the most by a team in a playoff game since Boston had that many against Indiana in 2005.
“I don’t know how many techs we got. … I would call that not keeping your cool, not being very Zen,” Noah said.
The Heat were assessed three technicals, a season high for them.
Norris Cole scored 18 points for Miami, which got 15 from Dwyane Wade and 13 from Chris Bosh. The Heat led 42-38 with 3:42 left in the first half before going on an absurd 62-20 run. Yes, 62-20. It was that one-sided. Miami shot 60 percent to Chicago’s 36, outrebounded the Bulls 41-28 and enjoyed a huge edges in points off turnovers (28-7) and fastbreak points (20-2).
“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.”
Marco Belinelli scored 13 for the Bulls, who got 12 from Noah and 11 from Nate Robinson.
Noah was ejected with 10:13 left, and while that mess was being sorted out, Gibson got two more technicals and joined his teammate in the visiting locker room.
“I just wanted to let the referee, I wanted to let him know how I felt about the game,” Noah said.
TNT announcer Steve Kerr, a former Bulls player, questioned the officiating at that point.
“I don’t blame Gibson,” Kerr said as Gibson left the court, television cameras catching him directing a stream of what appeared to be profanities toward either referees, players or both.