Sports

LeBron, Miami stave off Chicago in physical Game 3

KING OF FLING: Nazr Mohammed pushes LeBron James to the ground (inset) during the first half of Miami’s win over the Bulls. Mohammed was ejected from the game. (
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CHICAGO — The Heat and Bulls already have plenty of reasons to dislike each other.

But if it was possible, the animosity between the teams reached another level when Nazr Mohammed shoved LeBron James to the ground in the second quarter of what eventually became a 104-94 Heat win over the Bulls in Game 3 of this Eastern Conference semifinal. Miami leads the series, 2-1.

As James dribbled over halfcourt on a fastbreak with 9:29 remaining in the second quarter, Mohammed made a beeline for James and fouled him to stop the break. After being hit, James grabbed Mohammed and threw him to the ground, immediately drawing a technical foul from referee Joey Crawford.

Almost before anyone could realize what had happened, however, Mohammed leapt up and shoved James in the chest, sending him to the ground. Crawford sent Mohammed to the locker room early with an ejection after playing just 2:31.

“I’m not a dirty player, I’m not an instigator,” Mohammed said. “I’m out there playing hard, physical basketball, the way I was taught when I came into this league. If a guy is going on a steal on a break, you want to stop the break.

“I tried to stop the break, got tossed to the ground, got up instinctively. … I’m just so happy I didn’t do anything else, and I just pushed him. I had to come back in the locker room and watch it because I couldn’t recall what happened. I was kind of [angry] he kind of pushed me to the ground.

“It was a soft foul. It wasn’t like I fouled him hard. You expect that when you foul a guy hard you expect him to kind of give you a little extra. But not on a soft, stop-the-break-type foul.”

Not surprisingly, the sides saw the play — and whether Mohammed pushed James hard enough to send him sliding across the floor without some embellishment — differently.

“From my angle, I just saw a guy flop,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I’ll leave it at that.

“We’re well aware of what’s going on. I’m watching how things are going. I watch very closely. What I’m seeing is … we’ll adjust accordingly.”

James, however, said it was easy for him not to retaliate against Mohammed.

“I haven’t been in a situation like that before, and but … my mind is in another place right now,” he said after finishing with 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, and hit a 3-pointer with 2:35 remaining that gave the Heat a seven-point lead and put away the game.

“Listen, if I get kicked out and Nazr Mohammed gets kicked out at the same time, who wins? It’s that simple,” James said. “So I’m not even going there.”

It was the latest incident in what has been a physical series that has already featured several skirmishes — the kind of series everyone expected between these two teams, who have plenty of history going back over the past few seasons. That history includes the Heat defeating the Bulls in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011 and the Bulls ending the Heat’s 27-game winning streak here earlier this season.

“You can’t win a championship being pretty and shiny,” said Chris Bosh, who had 20 points, 19 rebounds and four assists for Miami. “You have to get dirty. You are going to have to play physical.You have to dive on the floor. You have to do things that are extremely tough.”

For Miami, it looks like it will be extremely tough to get by the Bulls, who continue to make the Heat’s collective life miserable despite again missing Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich.

“We have guys who are fighters now,” Bulls forward Taj Gibson said. “We’re undermanned, emotions are going to fly … it’s playoff basketball.”