CHICAGO: LeBron James scored 27 points as the Miami Heat nearly matched a club record for points conceded in a playoff game, dominating the listless and short-handed Chicago Bulls 88-65 on Monday to take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
At Memphis Tennessee, Tony Allen scored on a driving layup to open overtime as the Grizzlies beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 103-97 to push the defending Western Conference champions to the edge of elimination.
The Bulls’ 65 points were just two more than the all-time postseason low for a Miami opponent, and it was easily the worst offensive performance by a Chicago team.
Never before had the Bulls scored fewer than 69 in a playoff game or 10 in a quarter during the postseason, but both those marks fell on a night when they were dominated on both ends of the floor.
Miami led by 11 at the half and put this one away in the third quarter, outscoring Chicago 17-9 in the period.
“We worked for it,” said Heat forward Chris Bosh. “I never like to say that things are easy.”
The defending champion Heat will try to wrap up the series at home Wednesday.
James had his usual complete game with eight assists and seven rebounds Monday.
Bosh finished with 14 points after scoring 20 and grabbing 19 rebounds in Game 3, and the Heat won again despite another quiet night from Dwyane Wade (six points), whose right knee was bothering him again. He appeared to aggravate it on a fallaway jumper during the game but was able to return after getting re-taped.
“It’s frustrating at times, but you just try to do what you can,” Wade said.
The Grizzlies shook off a first half in which they couldn’t hit shots and the Thunder seemingly couldn’t miss in building their largest lead in this series at 17 points. But the Grizzlies have yet to lose on their home court this postseason, and they won their third straight and seventh in eight games to grab a 3-1 lead in the series.
Game 5 is Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.
The Grizzlies outscored the Thunder 9-3 in overtime.
Kevin Durant scored 27 points but missed all five of his shots in overtime.
LeBron, Allen headline NBA All-Defensive Team
Meantime, LeBron James and Memphis guard Tony Allen headline the NBA All-Defensive First Team.
The league announced Monday that Allen received 53 points in the voting, while the Miami Heat star had 52. Each player had 25 first-team votes from the NBA’s 30 head coaches.
The pair were joined on the first team by Clippers guard Chris Paul (37 points), Thunder forward Serge Ibaka (46), Knicks center Tyson Chandler (24) and Bulls center Joakim Noah (24).
Marc Gasol, who was the NBA’s defensive player of the year, made the second team. He was joined on that squad by Celtics guard Avery Bradley, Grizzlies guard Mike Conley, Spurs forward Tim Duncan and Pacers forward Paul George.
Heat, Grizzlies open 3-1 series leads
