The Miami HEAT defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 116-109 Sunday afternoon at AmericanAirlines Arena. Chris Bosh led the way for the HEAT with 29 points.
1. Bosh Razor Sharp from the Start
From the jump, Bosh was locked in from the perimeter. On a few of his looks early on, either Goran Dragic or Beno Udrih set him up quite well. Take for instance this pick-and-pop with 9:20 left in the third. Noah Vonleh went to contest Dragic, so Bosh received a clean look from straightaway, which he drilled to further cut into Portland’s lead.
While Bosh mainly scored from outside, he started to attack off the dribble early on in the fourth quarter. He had a few patient drives to the hoop where either he finished the play or drew the foul on his man. On one play with 10:17 to go in the fourth, he accomplished both.
After sizing up Ed Davis on the right wing, Bosh aggressively drove baseline, absorbed contact from Davis and converted the nifty reverse with his left hand.
View the Play
Bosh scored 11 of his 29 points in the fourth on 5-of-8 shooting. In addition to those 29 points, he also had six boards and four assists on the afternoon.
2. Hassan Whiteside Makes His Mark
While the Trail Blazers don’t take very many shots in the paint, Whiteside made sure to make them think twice just in case. On this sequence at the end of the third quarter, he slid over to swat Damian Lillard and then blocked Davis immediately after. It was one heck of an effort by Whiteside.
On the flip side, the big man continued to fight on the offensive glass. There were a few instances in the fourth quarter where he simply out-hustled Mason Plumlee and Meyers Leonard for the board and ended up getting the put-back finish. Those kinds of plays are truly game changers, especially when they come in crunch time. Otherwise, Whiteside got some great looks at the rim thanks to Dwyane Wade. As usual, they connected on a few excellent plays in the fourth quarter to help the HEAT come away with the win.
Oh, and let’s not forget this poster courtesy of Whiteside in the third quarter.
In all, Whiteside had 22 points, 11 boards and five blocks on Sunday.
3. Luol Deng Starts It, Gerald Green Finishes It
Thanks to some pretty good ball movement, Deng had a quick start to the game. In the first half alone, he hit all four of his shot attempts for 12 points. Most of his threes came off him spotting up on the wing. While Deng benefited from some great passes, the HEAT as a whole moved the ball well in the first half. In fact, the team tallied 13 assists on 20 made field goals through two quarters and shot 51.3 percent as a result. Deng ended up hitting his first five from downtown and finished with 17 points, two rebounds and an assist.
Green, meanwhile, essentially picked up where Deng left off. The hoop must’ve looked like an ocean to the swingman in the fourth, where he hit some extremely difficult 3-pointers. Both he and Bosh helped Miami take a lead with 5:28 left in the game that it would never relinquish. Green tallied 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc, against Portland.
Game Note: Josh McRoberts (bruised right knee) and Tyler Johnson (strained left shoulder) sat out.
