Rose, Deng power Bulls past Miami
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Derrick Rose scored a game-high 27 points and Britain's Luol Deng added 18 to spark the Chicago Bulls past Miami 87-86 on Sunday, sending the Heat to their fourth loss in a row and fifth in six games.
The Bulls improved to 43-18, remaining ahead of the Heat (43-20) for the second-best record behind Boston in the Eastern Conference. Chicago also completed a three-game sweep of the season series with Miami.
"We can play with any team in this league," Rose said. "As long as we play hard, we will be fine. We're just jelling right now."
Miami star guard Dwyane Wade tried to build an 'us against the world' feeling for the Heat, who obtained stars LeBron James and Chris Bosh last year and became despised by fans of most rival clubs.
"The Miami Heat are (doing) exactly what everyone wanted, losing games," Wade said, adding sarcastically. "The world is better now because the Heat is losing."
James, the NBA's two-time reigning Most Valuable Player, let his teammates know after the game that he is fed up with losing and late-game failures.
"I told my team I'm not going to continue to fail late in games," James said. "I put a lot of blame on myself tonight. I told the guys that I just keep failing them late in games and I won't continue to do that."
"I'm always happy to get a win," Rose said. "Lu chased the shot down and did what he was supposed to do. We came in. We were sluggish. We fought our way back. We can play."
James finished with 23 points while Chris Bosh added 23 for the Heat and Wade contributed 20 for slumping Miami, which was humbled 125-95 two nights earlier at San Antonio and which fell to 2-8 in games decided by three points or fewer.
"One of these days, we will break through," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
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