Ben Gordon scored 24 points and Luol Deng added 22 and 12 rebounds and the Chicago Bulls completed a four-game sweep of the defending champion Miami Heat on Sunday, winning 92-79.
Miami started strong, taking a 48-44 lead into halftime. However, the Bulls, who out-scored the Heat 59-44 in the second half of game three, out-scored Miami 48-31 in the second half of game four. The Heat once again struggled at the line, shooting 13-of-27 (48.1%). Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning shot a combined 2-of-14 at the charity stripe, O'Neal going 0-of-7. Miami shot 16-of-35 (45.7%) in game three.
Despite shooting only 38.1% from the floor and being out-rebounded 49-42, Chicago forced the Heat into 17 turnovers and capitalized on the good majority of them. The Bulls took great care of the basketball, turning it over only five times. Chicago also got clutch free throw shooting from Ben Wallace, who shot 7-of-8 from the line and hit several big ones in the fourth quarter when he was fouled intentionally. Wallace finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Bulls also poor shooting nights from Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni, who went only 2-of-12 and 4-of-14 from the floor, respectively. Gordon remedied that, going 10-of-18.
Chicago will face the Detroit Pistons in the next round of the playoffs. The Bulls won the season series 3-1.
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