Heat oust Bulls, set up NBA playoffs clash with Celtics
The chants started raining down in the fourth quarter. "We want Boston," the Miami Heat crowd kept shouting, over and over.
The fans got their wish. And a rematch of the last two NBA Eastern Conference finals awaits in the opening round of the playoffs this year.
Miami - even with Jimmy Butler sidelined for several weeks with a sprained knee - grabbed the last spot in the conference playoffs by beating the Chicago Bulls 112-91 in a home play-in tournament elimination game on Friday night.
Tyler Herro scored 24 points and was an assist shy of a triple-double for the Heat as rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 21 points, Kevin Love scored 16 and Bam Adebayo contributed 13.
Miami are now set to be huge underdogs against a league-topping Celtics team who are big favourites to win the title.
The Heat are the No. 8 seed again, just like last year when they survived the play-in and went all the way to the NBA Finals.
"Ultimately, we've just got to bring that Miami Heat culture and that toughness," Jaquez said. "We've got two games in Boston. We've got to set the tone extremely early, impose our will on them and make it real physical."
The Heat took control over the Bulls with a 19-0 run in the first quarter, and a 14-0 run midway through the second half ended all doubt.
DeMar DeRozan scored 22 points for the Bulls, who got 16 points, 14 rebounds and five assists from Nikola Vucevic.
It'll be far more difficult for the Heat this time against a Boston team that won an NBA-best 64 games this season and are likely still smarting from losing a Game 7 of last year's East finals to the Heat at home.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity to be in the playoffs," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "I'm grateful for this locker room to have this opportunity. And I think they're appreciative of it.
In New Orleans, the Pelicans booked a playoffs first-round match up with Western Conference top seeds Oklahoma City, downing Sacramento 105-98 in their play-in eliminator.
Young Australian Dyson Daniels played only a two minute cameo from the bench for the Pelicans as Brandon Ingram scored 24 points and Jonas Valanciunas added 19 points and 12 rebounds.
The Pelicans won without leading-scorer Zion Williamson, who strained his left hamstring right as he reached the 40-point mark in a play-in loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.
Undaunted they used a balanced approach with six players scoring 10 or more points as they prolonged a streak of No.7 seeds never missing the playoffs since the play-in tournament was adopted by the NBA in 2020.
De'Aaron Fox scored 35 points for Sacramento, and Domantas Sabonis had 23 points and 14 rebounds.