Rose held to 2 points as HEAT head to Finals.
"I played the worst game of my life in the most important game of my career."
Derrick Rose's words best summed up game #6 of the Conference Finals. Rose struggled the entire game, making just one of his 14 field goals to go with 6 turnovers.
The game was very physical and the referees were letting the teams play. "D-Wade had 1 free throw, that pretty much says it all," said Chris Bosh about his teammate. Wade had his only free throw as he blew past Leo Lai and dunked on Carlos Boozer, reminiscent of his famous dunk over Varejao.
The Bulls jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead with just a minute gone by due to the sloppiness of Miami, who were very careless with the ball. But the Heat then clamped down and held the Bulls scoreless for the next 4 minutes.
Serge Ibaka had a big first half with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks. The Bulls trimmed the lead down and took a 3-point lead into halftime after a stellar second quarter when the HEAT reserves failed to carry the momentum of the starters.
The third quarter was a close contest. Dwyane Wade started heating up with 10 points in the quarter and Chris Bosh chipped in 7 of his own.
Derrick Rose made his only field goal with 10.33 left in the fourth quarter to which point he had already accumulated all of his 6 assists. The fourth quarter that followed might be the worst quarter of his career. 10.33 without registering a point or an assist in a close-out game.
The Bulls managed otherwise, as they had a good run to follow Rose's field goal, out-scoring the HEAT 13-4 and taking a 12-point lead.
Dwyane Wade scored 10 straight points for the HEAT without a response from the home team and the HEAT were back within two points.
With 5 minutes left, the Bulls froze. Not just Rose, the 4 other guys on the floor couldn't do anything. The HEAT ended the game with a 17-8 run to clinch the Eastern Conference Title for the second year in a row and third time in franchise history.
The HEAT will face the Lakers in the Finals, who beat the Mavericks in 5 games. The two clubs also faced each other in the Finals last year. That time the HEAT won in 5 games and one-time HEAT LeBron James was named Finals MVP as Dwyane Wade missed the series with an injury.
Box Score
#1 MIA (4-2) | 23 | 17 | 23 | 31 || 94 ||
#2 CHI (2-4) | 18 | 25 | 21 | 23 || 87 ||
Player of the Game : Dwyane Wade
| 33 PTS | 8 REBS | 4 ASTS | 1 STLS | 3 BLKS | 16-28 FG | 0-2 3 PT FG | 1-1 FT
Serge Ibaka : 21 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 blocks, 7-12 FG, 7-7 FT
Chris Bosh : 15 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals, 6-11 FG, 3-3 FT
Rudy Gay : 13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, 6-16 FG
Kyrie Irving : 8 points, 7 assists
Carlos Boozer : 22 points, 11 rebounds, 10-25 FG
Joakim Noah : 13 points, 6 rebounds, 5-7 FG
Leo Lai : 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 6-22 FG, 1-6 3PT
Luol Deng : 9 points, 5 rebounds, 4-9 FG
Tayshaun Prince : 8 points, 3 rebounds
CJ Watson : 6 points, 4 assists
Derrick Rose : 2 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 turnovers, 1-14 FG
