On April 15, Beijing time, the second round of the NBA playoffs began today, and the East faced the Heat, who had the seventh regular season record, against the Bulls, who won the eighth in the East, and advanced to the playoffs in the eighth place, and played against the Bucks in the first round. In three meetings this season, the Bulls swept the Heat 3-0.
The Heat, who played at home in the first quarter, led by 14 points at 29-15 under Strus' fiery three-point play and Butler's leadership; Then at the end of the first quarter and early in the second quarter, Caruso erupted, and the Bulls unleashed a 15-2 offensive wave to chase the score to 30-31 by only one point, but then the Heat opened the gap again, and the Bulls narrowed the gap again at the end of the game, and at halftime, the Heat led the Bulls by five points 49-44.
At the beginning of the third quarter, the Heat again opened the gap to 10 points with a fiery feel, and then the Bulls played a wave of 16-4 attacks to overtake the score 60-58, and then the two sides entered a tug-of-war again, the score was tied and led alternately many times, and the third quarter ended, and the Bulls overcame 68-67 by one point.
In the fourth quarter, after a short alternating lead, the Bulls took a six-point lead by a crosshair from beyond the three-point line, and then Butler stepped up and scored an assist to tie the score; The game went into 3:45 with the Bulls leading by three points, but then they suddenly lost power on the offensive end, and the Heat threw a 12-1 offensive wave to kill the game, and the Heat eventually defeated the Bulls 102-91 to advance to the playoffs in eighth place in the East.
In terms of statistics, DeRozan had 26 points, 4 rebounds and 9 assists, LaVine was 6 of 21, 0 of 6 from three-point range and had only 15 points, Caruso had 16 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, and Kobe White had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Beverley made 4 fouls on 0-of-4 shooting, grabbed 2 rebounds, gave 4 assists, and once boasted of kicking the Lakers out of the playoffs, but he didn't want to go home.
On the Heat side, Butler had 31 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, Strus 31 points and 6 rebounds, Adebayo 8 points, 17 rebounds and 4 assists, and Hiro 12 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.