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CHICAGO — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh joined to win a championship. Well, now they have their shot.
James scored 28 points, Wade added 21, and they led a furious rally in the final minutes as the Heat eliminated Derrick Rose and the Bulls 83-80 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals last night.
James and Wade were simply spectacular down the stretch, each scoring eight during a game-ending 18-3 run as Miami wiped out a 12-point deficit to win the series.
Now, the Heat are headed back to the NBA finals for the first time since 2006, and in a fitting twist, they’ll be facing the Mavericks. Back then, with Wade leading the way, Miami rallied from a 2-0 series deficit to win four straight over Dallas and capture the championship. This time, it’ll be James and the Maverick’s Dirk Nowitzki going for their first rings.
The Heat will host Game 1 on Tuesday night.
“There’s no sense of relief right now,” James said. “We’ve still got work to do. We’ll look at this moment tonight, have a little bit of time tomorrow to go over this moment, what we just accomplished. But we get ready for Dallas very soon. We don’t take for granted this win and take for granted being Eastern Conference champions.”
Even so, this is exactly where the Big Three intended to be right from the start. The Heat had their difficulties along the way, including a five-game losing streak in March, but look at them now.
They just knocked off the team that won more games than any other, that boasted the league’s MVP in Rose and sent expectations soaring around Chicago in a way not seen since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were racking up championships.
Rose led Chicago with 25 points but hit just 9 of 29 shots. He fouled Wade on a key four-point play and missed a tying free throw with 26.7 seconds left.
“At the end, it’s all me,” Rose said. “Turnovers, missed shots, fouls. The series is over.”
James had 11 rebounds and six assists. Wade’s late surge helped negate his nine turnovers. Bosh added 20 points and 10 rebounds as the Heat pulled out a dramatic win.
“We had to go through a lot of adversity,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We had to go through that fire together to be able to gain the confidence where we could be successful now in the postseason.”
The Bulls looked like they were in good shape up 77-65 with about three minutes to go, but Wade started the deciding run with a runner and layup. A 3 by James pulled Miami within 77-72 with 2:07 left. Rose then scored on a spin move in the lane, but fouled Wade as he nailed a 3, resulting in a four-point play.
Then, after a miss by Rose, James tied it at 79 with another 3 with 1:01 remaining, sending a loud groan through the arena.
James buried another jumper to put Miami ahead 81-79 with 29.5 seconds left after he stole a pass from Rose. He immediately fouled Rose, who missed the second free throw after making the first.
Kurt Thomas then tipped the inbounds pass, but the Heat recovered, leading to two free throws for Bosh. The Bulls still had one more chance to tie it, but Kyle Korver got doubled up top and passed to Rose on the wing. His 3-pointer got blocked by James, with Udonis Haslem doubling him as time expired.
“We don’t even know what happened,” Wade said. “I’m not going to lie to you and say we do.”
Now, James and his gang have their title shot. And the Bulls have a bitter end.