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Heat wrap up road trip in Chicago vs. Bulls

Jan 15, 2011 - 6:13 PM (Sports Network) - A pair of Eastern Conference heavyweights clash in the Windy City Saturday night when the Miami Heat wrap up a five-game road trip in the United Center against the Chicago Bulls.

Both teams were remade this past summer. In fact, with a large amount of salary cap space available Chicago was intent on luring LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Chicago native Dwyane Wade to the Second City but were spurned when the three All-Stars chose to play together in South Beach instead. The Bulls then went to a Plan B, which included signing former Utah All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer to team with the dynamic Derrick Rose.

Both teams have flourished with Miami just a game back of Boston for the top spot in the East, and Chicago holding down the third seed, four games south of the Celtics.

The Heat extended their road winning streak to an impressive 13 games by winning the first two tests on their trek before tripping up in Los Angeles against the Clippers on Wednesday, and following that up with a 130-102 setback in Denver on Thursday. The Nuggets' J.R. Smith scored 28 points and Carmelo Anthony added 21 in that rout.

Bosh scored 24 points and Wade added 16 for Miami, which played without James, who missed his first game in a Heat uniform due to an ankle injury. James suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's loss to the Clippers.

Eddie House added 15 points and Mario Chalmers 14 for Miami, which hasn't dropped three in a row since Nov. 20-24.

"Our offense is predicated a lot around [James]. It kind of threw us off a little bit," Wade said. "We'll just move on and hopefully he'll get healthy."

James, who is averaging 29.2 points against the Bulls over his career, missed the team's shootaround Saturday morning and was described as doubtful by Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

The Bulls, meanwhile, salvaged the back-end of a quick two-game road trip in Indianapolis on Friday when Rose scored a game-high 29 points to go with 10 rebounds and five assists, as Chicago snapped a three-game road losing streak with a 99-86 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Luol Deng contributed 17 points and three blocks, while Boozer added 14 points and six boards for Chicago, which has gone 17-5 over its past 22 games and leads Indiana by a comfortable nine games in the Central Division. Kurt Thomas grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds for the victors.

"I thought we helped each other a great deal tonight," Boozer said of the team's defensive effort. "We were talking, making sure everybody was on the same page."

Miami has won seven of its past nine meetings with the Bulls. Chicago, however, has won seven straight overall at the United Center and is 17-3 as the host this season.