- Wade tallies three steals, two blocks in fourth-quarter fury
With over 24 lead changes in the first three quarters alone, the back-and-forth pace of the divisional battle set the tone for a tightly contested affair. The margin never expanded beyond eight points during the 36-minute span, with James notching 23 points, Kevin Love reaching the 20-point plateau and Lauri Markkanen trailing closely behind with 19 points. Neither side could muster enough of a rally to earn a double-digit advantage, creating an eager atmosphere heading into the final period.
“We did shift our lineups quite a bit but the Bulls have improved,” Drew said. “The kid Markkanen, he’s a terrific player. That team has won about six or seven in a row. So, they’ve been playing good basketball. It looks like they’re in a pretty good rhythm.”
Then the scrappy, pesky defense of Wade made its presence known.
Wade knocked down a jumper, blocked a layup attempt by Bobby Portis, splashed a floating shot down the lane, stole a Jerian Grant pass and swiped the ball away from Paul Zipser in the first 90 seconds of the fourth quarter.
“We’ve won a lot of games in [the fourth] quarter,” said Wade. “You kind of know by the end what a team likes to run. You kind of know where to take away from individual players. We put out lineups where it makes us tough.”
The relentless effort led to a 7-0 run and 89-79 lead, both of which sparked the biggest shift in momentum.
“It was defensive perfection – from the tips to the strips, everybody was just locking down defensively and D-Wade had his hands going tonight,” James said. “The bench just got us that 10-point lead and we needed it, because that team has been playing extremely well as of late. Defensively, we were just in tune.”
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