May 10, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls center Nazr Mohammed (48) pushes Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) during the second quarter in game three of the second round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

In my preview I said that to win Game 3 the Heat had to get a little nasty — and the Heat certainly did, matching the Chicago Bulls’ toughness with their own grittiness.

The game see-sawed back and forth for basically the entire game, with teams getting chippy and chirpy with each other.  The nasty tone of the game was set in the first quarter with Nazr Mohammed shoving LeBron to the floor and getting ejected in the process.

With five minutes left in the game, and with the Chicago Bulls only down five points and with the momentum, LeBron James and Norris Cole made some huge plays to carry the Heat down the stretch in a hostile atmosphere.  Norris Cole hit a three to extend the Heat’s lead to seven.  LeBron James had an and-1 to further extend the lead to ten.

This stretch of play was atypical of this game.  The Bulls and Heat would trade punches, but every time the Bulls had the momentum the Heat would steal it away quickly with a three pointer or an easy basket.  That being said, this game was probably a little too close for the Heat’s liking (they were only up by two points at halftime), especially since the Bulls were missing Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich.

Dwyane Wade had a good game for the Heat (20 points on 8-for-16 shooting) as did Norris Cole (18 points, 3-for-3 from three point range), though the rest of the team, with the exception of LeBron, struggled to score..  On the other hand, while the Chicago Bulls starters had good games (every starter had 15 or more points) the Bulls essentially only had two bench players after Nazr Mohammed got ejected.  This meant that four Bulls players played 40+ minutes — by comparison, Wade and LeBron were the only Heat players to play 40+ minutes.  This is going to be a key point to monitor for the rest of the series — how many minutes the Bulls players log versus the Heat players.  I suspect that as this series slogs on, the minutes that the Bulls have logged will catch up with their players.

Here are some key stats from the game:

• FG% — Heat (50%), Bulls (45.5%)
• 3FG% — Heat (40%), Bulls (31.8%)
• FT% — Heat (86.7%), Bulls (68%)
• Rebounds — Heat (39), Bulls (37)

Apr 15, 2013; Cleveland, OH, USA; Miami Heat point guard Norris Cole (30) drives past Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving (2) in the third quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

It must be the flattop right?

Norris Cole was the Man as he had a LeBron-esque near-triple double: 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists.  He also stole the ball from Kyrie Irving, with three seconds left and the Heat clinging to a 96-95 lead, as Kyrie was driving to the hoop for a game-winning shot.  There are even rumors he changed the oil on the Heat’s bus and repaired an engine on the team’s plane, but nothing has been confirmed

With LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Chalmers, Battier, and Haslem out with injuries or resting, Erik Spoelstra probably could have taken some reps at shooting guard considering he is only two years older than JUWAN HOWARD, Miami Heat starting forward.

That’s right, Juwan Howard actually started an NBA game this year, at age 40.  He had 7 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists in 19 minutes of action, and sat Norris Cole down on his lap during a timeout and told him some basketball war stories from the Cretaceous Period.

The game was close in the first half, with the Cavs leading 52-49.  But after Miami’s third quarter, where they outscored the Cavs 31 to 19, I thought the game was really over…until the Cavs came out like gangbusters in the fourth quarter.  Kyrie Irving hit clutch shots, including a clutch three with less than five minutes left to pull the Cavs within four.

While Miami shot better than the Cavaliers (50% FG vs. 45.3% FG) out-rebounded the Cavs (45 vs. 38) and had more assists than the Cavs (25 vs. 20), Miami turned the ball over way too much(17 times, while the Cavs only turned the ball over five times).  This is expected as Ray Allen and Norris Cole, natural shooting guards, were handed the keys to the offense.

Additionally, Miami had a paltry 28 points in the paint — the Cavs had 50 points in the paint, and the Cavs started Tyler Zeller, Tristan Thompson, and Alonzo Gee; I guess that’s what you get when your starting forward (Howard — 40 years old) is only seven years younger than the combined ages of the opposing starting forwards (Thompson is 22 years old, Alonzo Gee is 25 years old).