In Miami, two of the NBA’s elite teams met for the first time this year. The Chicago Bulls came to town for the first time since the Miami Heat eliminated them from the Eastern Conference Championship last year. This two teams will probably meet again in the playoffs at the end of this year. It appeared that Miami had the upper hand in the first of four match-ups for these two teams at least for the first three quarters; especially with Lebron James playing like the Lebron we used to all know and love. He even appeared to jump over John Lucas III in the first quarter (see the video above). This game was bound to come down to the fourth quarter and it did. The Bulls would not go down easy and tied the game even after having a 12 point deficit at one point in the game. It was not a good night for power forward Carlos Boozer, however, having Derrick Rose play like Derrick Rose kept this team in the game. As the fourth quarter started to wind down, the Miami Heat started to grow slowly especially after the offensive foul on Boozer and then the kick out of bounds by Joakim Noah. Chicago’s chances of winning really slipped away once Miami was in the bonus and were sent back to line multiple times. Not to mention, with about a minute and 20 seconds left, it took about seven shots from multiple people just to get one basket on a single possession. Why can no one make a shot on Chicago? Why was no one rebounding for Miami? But then like an MVP is supposed to do, Derrick Rose made it a one-point game with 49 seconds left. Just to make things even more dramatic, with 22 seconds Rose was fouled and sent to the line after being in the bonus, but misses his first foul shot of the season and then missing his second forcing Joakin Noah to foul Lebron and foul out of the game. Noah finished the game with a double double, scoring 11 points and getting 11 rebounds. This game was really a soap opera with James missing both of his foul shots. Then there was an inadvertent whistle which I still do not understand what happened there, but it resulted in a jump ball at center court. James won the tip to give Miami possession for the remaining 16 seconds of the game. Chicago was forced to foul Mario Chalmers who made only one of his foul shots keeping the game within two points. What a great game, but Miami took it in the end after Rose missed a field goal in which it looked like an impossible shot to begin with. The final score was 97-93.
