LOS ANGELES: Tyler Herro scored 38 points as the Miami Heat cruised past the Chicago Bulls 109-90 to keep their NBA playoff hopes alive on Wednesday.
Miami point guard Herro led from the front in a wire-to-wire victory that eliminated Chicago from postseason contention and sends the Heat into a winner-take-all clash against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday.
The winner of Friday’s Miami-Atlanta game will advance to the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, where they will face No.1 seed Cleveland.
“We just came out in attack mode,” Herro told ESPN after Wednesday’s win.
“We had a couple of days off since the last game — myself, my teammates and the coaching staff put in a lot of work and it paid off.
“We’ve got one more to go. The job is not done yet, just to get in the playoffs. So we’ve got a long way to go.
“We have a bunch of guys who come in every day, put their hard hats on and they work. The season hasn’t exactly gone how we wanted it to, but we continue to get better. There’s a lot to look forward to.”
Herro was backed by 20 points from Andrew Wiggins, while Bam Adebayo and Davion Mitchell scored 15 points apiece.
Australian international Josh Giddey led Chicago’s scorers with 25 points.
Wednesday’s win marked the third season in a row that Chicago have been eliminated from the play-in tournament by Miami.
Miami, who finished 10th in the Eastern Conference regular season standings, were always in control after making a fast start against a surprisingly lackluster Chicago line-up.
Herro did most of the early damage, scoring from his first eight attempts to pour in 16 points in a 39-28 first quarter that left Miami in control at Chicago’s United Center.
A dominant second quarter — Miami outscoring Chicago 32-19 — left the Heat leading 71-47 with the Bulls seemingly powerless to halt the flow of Heat scoring.
Although Chicago rallied in the third quarter, outscoring Miami 27-17, it was too little too late and the Heat closed out a comfortable win in the fourth.
In Wednesday’s other play-in game, Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson combined for 50 points as the Dallas Mavericks brought the Sacramento Kings’ season to a juddering halt with a 120-106 blowout on the road in California.
The Mavericks, who scraped into the play-in tournament after finishing in 10th place in the West, seized control of the game in an explosive second quarter, outscoring Sacramento 44-19 to build a hefty double-digit advantage which they held for the remainder of the game.
Former Golden State star Thompson rattled in 23 points while Davis, who joined Dallas in February from the Los Angeles Lakers following his former team’s trade for Luka Doncic, finished with 27 points and nine rebounds.
“We’re so desperate to keep the postseason alive,” Thompson said afterwards.
“It’s a privilege to play basketball at this time of year. I told the guys before the game ‘We have nothing to lose. Go out there with a free swing, play for each other and play free-minded.’ Because that’s when we’re at our best.”
Dallas will now play the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday with the winner advancing to a first-round playoff series against top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
