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Miami favored heavily in Friday's Game 3 in Chicago
By: Staff Writer - StatFox
Published: 5/10/2013  at  5:01:00 AM
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MIAMI HEAT (71-17)

at CHICAGO BULLS (50-41)

Eastern Conference Playoffs Second Round
Game 3 - Series tied 1-1
Tip-off: Friday, 8:00 p.m. ET
Line: Miami -7.0 Total: 188.5

After a Game 1 loss to the Bulls, the Miami Heat tied the series at 1-1 as the teams now head to Chicago for Game 3 at United Center.

The Miami Heat didn’t take kindly to the negative attention they drew after losing Game 1 at home to Chicago. The Heat turned their game around in Game 2 and completely dominated the Bulls winning 115-78. The Bulls hung around early in the game, but from the second quarter on it was all Heat. Ray Allen led Miami in scoring, coming off the bench to have 21 points in just 19 minutes. No Heat starters played more than 32 minutes in the game, so they will have fresh legs in Game 3. So far in the series both teams have covered in their respective wins making them 1-1 ATS. The Heat are 4-2 ATS to start this postseason while Chicago is just 4-5. The Bulls struggled ATS when playing at home, as they went just 13-28 at United Center. The Heat were 24-17 ATS when playing on the road.

The Miami Heat received a lot of scrutiny after losing a home game to the Bulls without Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich, but all that did was light a fire underneath them. The Heat came out and won Game 2 by 37 points behind 19 points (7-of-12 FG), nine assists, five rebounds and three steals from LeBron James. Dwyane Wade shot the ball a lot better in Game 2 as he scored 15 points (7-of-11 FG) while also dishing out five assists. Norris Cole played 30 minutes in the game and had his best playoff game so far, finishing the game with 18 points (7-of-9 FG, 4-of-4 3PT), six rebounds and two assists. Chris Bosh shot the ball better in Game 2 as well, scoring 13 points (5-of-10 FG) while also grabbing five rebounds and blocking a shot. Bosh is going to need to be more aggressive in the rest of this series. The Bulls are getting a lot of production out of their bigs and the Heat will need their All-Star to shoot more than ten shots.

The Chicago Bulls played excellent in Game 1, stealing a win in Miami, but in Game 2 they didn’t even show up. The Bulls, as a team, shot just 33.5% (27-of-76 FG) in Game 2 and that started in their backcourt. After an excellent Game 1 from the combination of Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli, the two combined to shoot just 7-of-23 FG in Game 2. The Bulls have relied on Robinson throughout the playoffs, but with LeBron James helping out on him he was having a lot of trouble getting going. Joakim Noah played a solid game for the Bulls, finishing with 12 points (3-of-7 FG) and six rebounds in 32 minutes of play. Carlos Boozer wasn’t aggressive in the game, as he shot the ball just nine times to score eight points (3-of-9) in 24 minutes. Chicago could really use a lift from Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich, who are both questionable to play Friday in Game 3.


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