Tyler Herro, Heat Impress Fans with Dominant Win vs. Bulls in NBA Play-in Tournament

Tyler Herro scored 16 of his 38 points in the first quarter to lead the Miami Heat to a 109-90 wire-to-wire win over the host Chicago Bulls in an Eastern Conference play-in tournament elimination game on Wednesday evening.

Herro finished with 23 points on a perfect 8-of-8 shots in the first half, which featured the Heat outscoring the Bulls 71-47.

Chicago stopped the bleeding in the second half and cut the lead to 13 points on a few occasions in the fourth quarter, but the first half hole was too deep to climb out before time expired.

Miami also received 20 points from Andrew Wiggins, 15 points and nine assists from Davion Mitchell off the bench and a 15-point, 12-rebound double-double from Bam Adebayo.

Miami's suffocating defense stymied the Bulls, who shot just 27.0 percent from three-point range. That defense gave the Heat a ton of wiggle room in the second half, so much so that Miami scored just 38 points in the final 24 minutes and still won by 19.

Ultimately, this was an impressive performance for the Heat, but Herro truly delivered a first-round knockout punch that the Bulls couldn't recover from. He had been on a torrid pace before then as well.

And that continued with ease Wednesday. Fans were impressed with the results.

Miami will now visit the Atlanta Hawks on Friday at 7 p.m. ET. The winner will earn the Eastern Conference's No. 8 seed and play the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round.