Miami Heat bounced back from their loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at the expense of the short-handed Chicago Bulls with a 118-96 victory at the United Center on Friday evening.

Starting guard Goran Dragic led the Heat with 26 points. Reserve guard Josh Richardson finished the game with 22 points including four three-pointers for the Miami. The Heat connected a team combined 10 treys out of 18 attempts from the three-point range.

Like Us on Facebook

"We played defense and forced them to make a lot of turnovers," Dragic, who shot 10 of 16 from the field and made 5 of 6 from the foul line, said. "We were really aggressive. After that, we could run. We scored a lot of points in the open court."

Luol Deng and Joe Johnson chipped in with 19 and 15 points respectively, while Hassan Whiteside had another remarkable double-double game performance of 13 points and 16 rebounds to go along with 3 blocked shots and 1 steal coming off the bench.

Dwyane Wade only scored 9 points with a 3 for 15 shooting night.

Chicago started strong in the opening period,  scoring better against the visiting team to end the first 12 minutes of the game with 31-23 lead. However, Miami began to make things happen as they made a combined 61-50 run in the second and third quarter, entering the final quarter with 84-81 advantage.

Miami dominated the fourth quarter and never looked back. They built a 27-point lead with 1:18 minutes remaining on the clock and the scores reading at 118-91.

The Bulls dropped to .500 at 32-32 following their second straight defeat and missed a chance to move into the final Eastern Conference playoff spot after Detroit lost at Charlotte.

Pau Gasol led Chicago with 17 points, 12 boards and 9 assists and Justin Holiday added 14 points.

"When we made mistakes, they capitalized," Gasol said. "They busted the game open and kept going and started making all kinds of shots."

TagsMiami Heat, Chicago Bulls, nba recap, Pau Gasol, Dwyane Wade, Hassan Whiteside