Tyler Herro flirted with a hat-trick in Jimmy Butler’s absence and the Miami Heat crushed the Chicago Bulls 112-91 on Thursday to advance to the playoffs.
The Heat therefore take eighth place in the East and will face the Boston Celtics, regular season champions, in the first round of the series.
Miami is in the playoffs for the fifth straight season. This is the second consecutive season that the Heat have defeated the Bulls in the play-in tournament to advance to the playoffs by placing eighth. Last year, the Heat surprised the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in the first round and continued their journey to the final, where Miami had to admit defeat to the Denver Nuggets.
Herro finished the game with 24 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
Butler was sidelined with a right knee injury suffered Wednesday and is expected to be out for several weeks.
Rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr, who took Butler’s place in the starting five, had a good game with 21 points, six rebounds and six assists. Kevin Love added 16 points and seven rebounds in just 12 minutes coming off the bench. Bam Adebayo scored 13 points.
DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with 22 points and Nikola Vucevic provided 16 points, 14 rebounds and five assists.
The Heat scored 19 straight points in the first quarter to take a 25-11 lead. This is their longest point streak of the season. Miami finished the first quarter in control 34-17.
The Bulls managed to get back into the game and stay within ten points of the Heat for the majority of the next two quarters, but Miami finished the third quarter with 12 straight points to start the fourth quarter with 22 points. ‘advance.
The qualifying tournament will end at the end of the evening with the duel between the Sacramento Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans, who compete for eighth place in the West.
Pelicans shrug off Zion’s absence
The New Orleans Pelicans also won despite a major absence to land eighth in the West.
Deprived of Zion Williamson, the Pelicans defeated the Sacramento Kings 105-98 to make an appointment with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. The Pelicans are making the playoffs for the second time in three seasons under Willie Green.
Williamson was not in uniform after suffering a hamstring injury in Tuesday’s Pelicans loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Another strong player took over as Jonas Valanciunas stood out under the basket and finished the game with a double of 19 points and 12 rebounds.
Brandon Ingram had 24 points, six rebounds and six assists and Trey Murphy III added 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
The Kings were led by their two star players: De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. Fox had 35 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals while Sabonis had 23 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
Author of a 32-point performance in the Kings’ victory over the Golden State Warriors in their first game of the qualifying tournament, Keegan Murray left the game briefly with a left hip injury late in the second quarter. He made only four of his 12 shots and was limited to 11 points.
The Kings are out of the playoffs after ending a 16-season drought last year.
2024-04-20 01:24:00
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