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BY BOB HURST
SPECIAL TO THE MIAMI HERALD
CHICAGO -- Bulls center Joakim Noah scored his first basket of Thursday night’s game against the Heat with a slam dunk that brought a roar from the fans at the United Center. He followed that with another dunk off a rebound nearly two minutes later that got the crowd jumping again.
It had been a while since Noah had been able to do that, having missed 30 games with a torn ligament in his right thumb that required surgery. He returned to the Bulls’ lineup Wednesday night at Toronto, playing a little over 24 minutes with seven points and 16 rebounds,.
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“I feel that I definitely have a lot of work to do, but it feels good to be just competing,” Noah said. “I feel that the game is still pretty fast for me, but I’m getting the hang of it and it just feels good.”
Noah brings an energy to the Bulls like no other player on the roster can, except for Derrick Rose. And although the team did fine without Noah, going 22-8, his teammates are thrilled to have him back.
“His energy was great for us tonight,” Rose said. “He was blocking shots, tipping balls, getting rebounds. When he gets back going I think we’re going to be tough.”
Chicago currently has the third-best record in the Eastern Conference, and with Noah back in the lineup, the Bulls are able to compete more evenly with the Heat and Boston.
“It always feels good to beat them,” Noah said of the Heat.
Noah came into the game against the Heat averaging 13.8 points per game, 11.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. He got off to a decent start with seven points in the first quarter and four boards while holding Chris Bosh to one point.
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“I was just excited,” Noah said. “A couple of calls didn’t go my way. Overall [guarding Bosh] . . . just contested the shots. Every time he came down the court I was trying to be physical with him.’’
While Noah gets back into the flow of game action, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau is working him in slowly. The Bulls’ center logged 20 minutes through three quarters.
Shortly after reentering with 6:38 left in the fourth, Noah picked up his fourth and fifth fouls within a span of just 24 seconds.
Noah, who looked tired in the last quarter, finished with 27:09 in playing time, seven points and eight rebounds in the Bulls’ 93-89 win.
Noah might need a few more games to return to playing shape, and he and his Bulls teammates may need that time to get used to each other again on the court. But there’s no doubt that when they do, the Bulls might just give the Heat and Celtics all they can handle in the postseason. And at the very least, make things a lot more interesting.
“This just lets people know that we can compete with some of the best teams in the NBA,” said Rose, who scored a team-high 26 points, and had the assist on Luol Deng’s three-pointer that put Chicago up for good at 92-89. “When we beat them the first time, people said that they didn’t have LeBron. Tonight, they had their whole team. It was a tough game, but we pulled it out.”