LeBron James scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and the Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls 86-67 Thursday for their season-high ninth straight win.
James also had seven assists in another big performance after ending his franchise-record seven-game streak of scoring at least 30 the previous night in Atlanta.
Dwyane Wade added 17 points, and the Heat took control in the first half, sending the Bulls to their fifth loss in seven games on a night when the Derrick Rose recovery story took another twist.
After saying last week that he wouldn’t rush back from his knee injury to play this season if he wasn’t ready, Chicago’s sidelined superstar had to go into damage control mode after his older brother Reggie blasted the organization in an ESPNChicago.com article for not making a move before Thursday’s trade deadline.
Things didn’t get much better for the Bulls once the game started.
Nate Robinson scored 14 points, Carlos Boozer had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Joakim Noah added 11 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, but he also committed four of the Bulls’ season-high 27 turnovers.
Chicago was particularly bad in the first half, coughing it up 17 times as the Heat built a 45-35 lead, and the Bulls came up short after winning at Miami last month. This time, the Heat took control in the second quarter, scoring 13 straight points during a 4 1/2-minute stretch to turn a two-point deficit into an 11-point advantage even though James was on the bench for much of the run.
— Reported by Andrew Seligman of the Associated Press
