The Chicago Bulls almost seemed like a team of destiny as they rallied for another comeback, but there was a different ending this time.
The Miami Heat earned the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed with a 102-91 win in the play-in tournament, ending Chicago’s season.
The Bulls reached the game after coming back from a 19-point deficit to defeat the Toronto Raptors in a game that eliminated Toronto from playoff contention. Miami was in this situation after it lost the No. 7 seed game against the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday.
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The Heat held a five-point lead at the half after leading by as many as 14.
Miami’s Max Strus tied his career-high of 23 points in the first half alone. He was kept scoreless for most of the second half, but then he hit some of the game’s biggest buckets.
He knocked a bucket to tie the game at 85 with just over five minutes to go. With Miami leading 93-91 with 90 seconds to go, Strus drilled a 3-pointer to put Miami back up five.
After Chicago missed a field goal, Strus was fouled on a 3-pointer with 40.7 seconds left, and he knocked down all three to ice the game. The Heat ended the game on a 15-1 run.
Strus’ 31 points came on 7-for-12 from beyond the 3-point line. Jimmy Butler also dropped 31, 13 of them in the fourth quarter. Bam Adebayo grabbed 17 rebounds in the victory.
The Heat will fly north to face the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks for a best-of-seven first-round series.
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