Mike Miller had seven points and six rebounds in the Miami Heat’s 83-80 win over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night, and he did it while playing with a heavy heart. The Heat defeated the Bulls in overtime on Tuesday night to take a commanding 3-1 series lead, with the series shifting back to Chicago for Game 5. Watch NBA Finals Schedual:
Miami trailed 77-65 with 3:02 to play last night before outscoring the Bulls 18-3 to win the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals by four games to one. The Bulls became the 21st consecutive team to lose a conference finals after falling behind 3-1 in the series. James and Wade were simply spectacular down the stretch, each scoring eight during a game-ending 18-3 run as the Heat wiped out a 12-point deficit to win the series.
The victory propelled the Heat to the NBA finals against the Dallas Mavericks, a repeat of the 2006 championship series which Miami won 4-2. The Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 100-96 Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center.
The champions of the Eastern Conference the Miami Heat will face the Dallas Mavericks, the champions of the Western Conference under a 2–3–2 rotation starting on Tuesday May 31 and ending no later than Tuesday June 14, on ABC.
If Miami wins any of the next three games against Chicago, which seems pretty likely, it would be Miami’s first trip to the NBA Finals since 2006. It will be also the first time since 2006 that neither the Los Angeles Lakers nor the San Antonio Spurs will represent the Western Conference in the Finals and only the second time since 1998.
“I wanted to team up with some guys that I understood would never die down in the moment,” James said. “The opportunity presented itself with this great organization, and D-Wade came to me and said it was possible. We made it happen.”
It’s been a long, hard road back to the NBA Finals for the Western Conference Champion Dallas Mavericks. Watch NBA Finals Schedual:
