Morning Box Score: Bulls Beat Heat Without Rose
By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 15, 2012 1:30PM
Miami has their Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, while the Bulls have arguably the deepest bench in the NBA. Still, if you told us before last night's game James and Wade would each score at least 35 points, Derrick Rose would be scratched from the game with a groin strain and the Bulls still would have beaten the Heat, we would have said you were insane.
As the cliche goes, that's why the games are played. The Bulls bench was the difference last night, outscoring Miami's bench 56-15. John Lucas III, who was a human hurdle for a James poster dunk the last time the two teams played, couldn't miss. Lucas led six Bulls in double figures with 24 points on 9-for-12 shooting as the Bulls led by as many as 17 points in the third period.
The Heat made things tense in the fourth quarter as Wade scored 19 of his game-high 36 points in the final 12 minutes. James scored 35 and Bosh 12; no other Miami player scored more than six points.
The Bulls were balanced. Joakim Noah scored 14, Ronnie Brewer and Kyle Korver each scored 12, and Luol Deng and CJ Watson scored 11 apiece. Noah also gave Stacey King reason to break out his poster machine.