Dwyane Wade had 30 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to led the Heat to a victory over the Bucks.
Heat drop injury plagued Bucks
By Rick Braun, for NBA.com
Posted Saturday March 27, 2010 12:32AM
MILWAUKEE (NBA.com exclusive) -- The fact that they just lost on the court to the Miami Heat was not the Milwaukee Bucks' biggest concern Friday night.
Dwyane Wade had 30 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to led the Heat to an 87-74 victory over the Bucks at the Bradley Center.
The Heat won its fourth straight game and improved to 39-34. Milwaukee lost its second straight at home and fell to 39-32. The Bucks lead the Heat by a game for the fifth spot in the East.
After the game, the Bucks were more concerned with a report from a local hospital.
Forward Carlos Delfino was taken off the court on a stretcher with 2:09 left in the first half after falling to the floor following a drive to the basket. In the ensuing battle for the rebound, Miami's Udonis Haslem came down with his right foot square on the back of Delfino's neck.
The Argentinean forward remained face-down and motionless for the next eight minutes before finally being rolled over onto a backboard and taken off on a stretcher.
The Bucks trailed, 46-32, at the time and were just 12 for 38 from the floor.
The Bucks already were without starting center Andrew Bogut (strained back) and key reserve forward Ersan Ilysova (flu), so they knew they were in for a difficult task.
Delfino missed a 3-pointer after the opening tip, and Wade came down and drove to the basket pretty much unimpeded. It was a sign of things to come.
"Wade dribbled in and shot a reverse layup with four guys standing there watching, so it was pretty indicative early on of what our struggles would be," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. "Then Dwyane just took it to us early and got to the line. We got in foul trouble and we were just doing whatever we could do to try and junk up the game and find something that worked."
With no inside offense, the Bucks shot just 31.5 percent (28 for 89), and they also had no inside defensive presence, not blocking a shot on the night while the Heat went hard to the basket.
They never really got back into the game, although a 13-1 run in the third quarter did pull them within 65-55.
The Heat responded with a 9-0 run, and that was that.
John Salmons led the Bucks with 23 points. Other than that the Bucks struggled to score all night long as Luke Ridnour (12) and Charlie Bell (11) were the only others to reach double figures.
Skiles said after the morning shootaround that Bogut would most likely miss the game with a mid-back strain. It was Bogut's seventh missed game of the season.
He missed 44 games last season with a stress fracture in his back, but Skiles did say the current injury is not related to the season-ending injury of last season.
Bogut suffered the injury in Wednesday's 101-86 loss to Philadelphia.
"This doesn't have anything to do with what happened last year," Skiles said before the game. "This is in his upper, mid-back. It's just a strain. I can't imagine it being very long. It's more or less just back spasms, and normally those things don't last very long.
"I'm hoping he'll be able to play Sunday (against Memphis)."
Bogut and Ilyasova are the Bucks' top two rebounders, and Bogut has a blocked shot in his last 34 games. But without Bogut's presence, the Bucks did not have a blocked shot and also finished with just nine assists as they had no inside game offensively.
The Heat also lost a player to injury as center Jermaine O'Neal went down with a hyper-extended right knee with 5:20 left in the first quarter and did not return.
O'Neal said after the game that he would get further tests on the knee on Saturday. He said he's experienced similar-type injuries and didn't think this one was as severe as others in the past.
The victory was the Heat's first against Milwaukee this season after losing three.
"Them being without Bogut certainly had an impact on the game and what we did was probably take care of business much like they did in the other three games when we were missing some key people," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Wade missed the last meeting between the teams, a 94-71 Milwaukee victory in Miami on Feb. 27, with a strained calf.
"The funny thing is, what you do in the beginning of the year is all great, but this is the time of the year we're looking at, and we're playing our best basketball," Wade said. "Even though they won the series and Charlotte won the (season) series, we knew that we have these games at this time and it would be beneficial for us as we continue to battle for this playoff position."
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Miami Heat vs Detroit Pistons (105 - 89) October 5, 2010by HeatTeo37,011 views
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