The Miami Heat strengthened their position as the sole leader in the Eastern Conference and maintained their undefeated head-to-head duel against the Chicago Bulls by taking advantage of their home-court advantage to defeat the team from the “Windy City” 112-99 on Monday night.
Kyle Lowry was unable to play for the Heat, but his place in the starting five was taken by Gabe Vincent, who had one of his best games of the season, leading his team along with Tyler Herro, who both scored 20 points for the winning cause.
Both Vincent, who started, and Herro, who came off the bench hit seven of the 13 shots from the field they attempted, and these two players were the only two players to total at least 30 minutes of effective playing time for Miami in this match-up.
“When the opportunity comes you want to take advantage of it,” Vincent said. “We miss Kyle (Lowry) and can’t wait to get him back.”
The Heat’s largest lead of the game was 24 points and came at the end of the third quarter, when Miami went on a 36-21 run to virtually secure the victory.
Other Miami players in double digits in scoring were former Bulls Jimmy Butler (15 points), Bam Adebayo (15 points) and Max Strus (13 points).
Bulls star DeMar DeRozan’s streak of 10 consecutive games with at least 30 points came to an end, as he scored only 18 and fell short of the franchise mark held by the legendary Michael Jordan.
This result not only gave Miami (41-21) a two-game lead over Chicago (39-23) at the top of the Eastern Conference, but also a 3-0 record in the head-to-head matchup to secure the tiebreaker in their favor.
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The Heat’s next game will be next Wednesday when they visit the Milwaukee Bucks.
For their part, the Bulls will return to the court the following Thursday when they visit the Atlanta Hawks. Marca
