The Heat could not overcome a 25-point first-quarter deficit, falling in the first of two straight to the Chicago Bulls Thursday evening 124-116 inside Kaseya Center in Miami, Fla.
Within the blink of an eye, the Chicago Bulls, who never trailed, rallied to a 33-8 first-quarter lead. The Heat, who finished the first quarter on a 14-3 run, eventually trimmed the deficit to four before halftime, but were not able to get over the hump in the second half and sputtered late.
After trailing 113-109 with 2:28 left, an Ayo Dosumnu wing 3-pointer followed by a 15-foot DeMar DeRozan jumper, a symbolic end to evening mired by a poor defensive for the Heat, which all but sealed their fate.
The Bulls shot 48.4 percent from the floor and 14-of-36 (38.9 percent) from 3-point range, though they only made 20-of-30 from the charity stripe.
Miami wasn’t much better, especially in situations where it could’ve gained more of a stranglehold on the deficit late. It shot 46.3 percent and 44.1 percent (15-34) from deep, marking the fourth straight game where they’ve knocked down 15 3-pointers as a team after having just four over their first 21 games. But Miami only converted on 27 of its 35 attempts, which was ultimately the difference.
Coby White led the Bulls with 26 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists on 9-of-20 shooting, including 4-of-11 from distance. Ayo Dosumnu had 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting off the bench with eight rebounds and five assists.
Nikola Vucevic sliced and diced the Heat in the second half, finishing with 24 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals on 10-of-21 shooting. DeRozan finished with 23 points on 6-of-14 shooting and 10-of-11 from the free-throw line.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. posted yet another game with double figures (12 straight … not that anyone’s counting), finishing with 22 points, four rebounds and four assists. Jimmy Butler had 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. on 6-of-15 shooting.
Caleb Martin and Kyle Lowry finished with 17 points apiece, though Martin tallied a team-high 11 rebounds and four assists. Kevin Love found his mojo after a rough Wednesday evening, posting 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-8 from deep.
The Heat will have an opportunity to split the series against the Bulls Saturday at 8:00 p.m. EST.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for updates.
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Reading the posts comments here it’s dejavu last season. Just hope same result of success also or even more. Go Riles!
pom poms on the way manila
Here’s a few trade scenarios to munch on. I like the Charlotte swap.
https://allucanheat.com/posts/4-fake-trades-for-miami-heat-to-consider-this-silly-season?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
Absolutely hate the Cleveland trade – no way do we give up our rising star!
I’m good with all the others, especially, as you say, the Hornets deal.
I agree.
Heck, I’m not even totally against the Toronto trade if we can flip those 2 first rounders plus 1 of our own (plus somebody like Highsmith or Martin) for an A level player.
These are the days when we all find out what this team is made of…the good, the bad and the ugly. I wouldn’t place too much emphasis on the next 5 games before Christmas since Bam and Herro aren’t due back until the end of the month. January and early February will tell us where we are headed this year and perhaps in the future.
We have a younger group of players (Herro, Bam, Jaquez, Jovic, Cain, Hampton) an older group (Lowry, Love and Cain) and several in the middle (Caleb, Duncan, JRich, Highsmith, etc.). If this group (with a trade or two) cannot potentially win a title, it may be time to look at other possible options (such as a modified rebuild).
The next month or so should tell us a lot.
GO HEAT!!!
herro back this monday or wed
He should come off the bench until Bam gets back.
trade him for rozier.
No trades until Pat knows what the team can do with everyone healthy. If he can tweek roster to stay competitive that’s one option. If not, he’s going to need to explore other options.
we know we dont have a pg and pf nba level.lowry pumped in a few pts lately but got torched by rozier and white.just doesnt have the speed to contain pgs .
I don’t disagree about need for PG and PF. I’ve advocated that all season. Now is not the time to pull the trigger. If Herro comes back strong he will improve his market value. Still need time to determine if Hampton can develop into rotation player. If both those things occur, Heat can probably get a nice haul for Lowry (expiring $29.7M contract) and Herro’s $27M contract before the trade deadline.
best move i see is vucevic and moving bam to the 4.if we were to meet denver in the finals jokic makes bam look like a midget,it was astonishing the size difference
Won’t happen. Vucevic is on very reasonable 3 year contract @ $18.5M. Plus, that would leave Chicago with only Drummond.
they would need orob back of course.vucevic is offensively more talented than bam .bam doesnt have the body of a 5.bam and vuc together we can only dream.why do we have to be the smallest and slowest team every time we take the ct.spo hates size
Smallest, slowest and oldest. Vuc is even slower.
3:1 in those four games against Charlotte and Chicago would be a good result taking into account, Herro and Bam are out. Its still within reach.
But man, It was NBA against G league first 7-8 minutes.
were badly lacking offensive production. We wont win much games if our leading scorer is jaime jacquez
This game was a slog. I was hoping they could steal it at the end to make up for a couple of the big leads they’ve blown this season. But realistically, they were getting outplayed all night and deserved to lose.
Feels prophetic that I complained about the lack of production from Jimmy Butler before this game. If you look at the counting stats they look fine, but he’s been mediocre this entire season. He didn’t look like an all-star tonight, and has rarely played like an all-star all season.
Not much else to say. The role players were fine (I would like to see Jovic get some of those O-Rob minutes) and the offense was not great but not bad. The defense is the thing that was clearly missing. There is no reason that a team with Jimmy Butler, Jamie Jaquez, and Caleb Martin should be getting shreded on dribble pentetration. All three of those guys could be the best wing defender for a lot of teams in the NBA, including the team they were playing against tonight.
The Heat had very few deflected passes, they weren’t pressuring the ballhandler, and they weren’t generating turnovers. Those are the things that have led to wins in the Jimmy Butler era. All of that, plsu Jimmy shooting 6-15 and Bam & Herro on the bench, of course they lost.
Ultimately, this game doesn’t really matter. It was the second night of a back-to-back in December, and they’re still within a half game of 5-10 in the East. Just a kind of crappy performance. On to the next one.
‘they weren’t pressuring the ballhandler’–> this is where we miss Gabe vincent. That guy is a great point of attack defender
‘Ultimately, this game doesn’t really matter.’–> uhm it kinda does. we need to win these winnable games against weaker teams. our schedule will be a lot tougher the next few weeks
good pt dont u think rj if given spo minutes might be able to do that.i know turtles too slow to slow down anybody.
Heat 10-2 vs losing teams and 4-9 against winning teams. Unless something changes, looks like a repeat of last year’s regular season’s results (#5 – #8). Bam’s interior presence severely missed. Chicago was just walking into the paint tonight, at will. Bulls outscored Heat in the paint 52-38.
No one should be surprised by any of our losses anymore as many of us saw this coming. The false narrative that it’s just that guys are hurt is hiding the underlying mediocrity. These up and down results will continue against the weaker teams. But, after next game, the team we have will be severely tested and our shortcomings will be exposed.
We were mediocre last season as well and things clicked at the right time to launch us into the finals. The last few years the Heat have tended to do more with less. Will they be as successful this season? Maybe not, but you never know. After 25 games, we are a very mediocre 14-11. Last season after 25 games, we were 11-14.
agree but what does jimmy have left..without him being a superstar which he really hasnt shown this year we are a mediocre team.the only question is is he saving superman for the playoff run or has father time got him.everything else for this team doesnt matter.to beat the big boys need jimmy superman.
I am wondering also. I do think Jimmy can still turn it on this year. But, by next year he may be at the Harden, Westbrook stage, an occasional good game, but not one to carry a team. That’s why I push so hard for trades and going all in. I believe this is Jimmy’s last hurrah. And to those who say we got to the finals after being mediocre all last year, I say Jimmy is a year older, and his play gives us reason to suspect that his back is less able to carry us. They should not take full solace in how last year worked out. Without a big trade, a big upgrade, my belief is the Heat are going to be golfing by round two.
If your concern is that Butler is in decline (I don’t necessarily disagree), then the solution is not to gut the team to get an upgrade to help him, but rather look to trade Butler, get young players and picks, and build around youth. People want to emulate OKC, Pacers, and going back a few years, the Celtics. You do that by trading your most valuable aging asset (ie – Lillard, Pierce/KG) and then draft and trade wisely.
trade jimmy u wont get much for him hes on his last leg..westbrook harden durant all traded from okc when they were pretty young.mow okc is good. im in the school to get jimmy a derozan siakam type player to help him out when he doesnt have his legs.u trade jimmy to a good team u wont get a high pick.crappy teams not looking for a 37year old player.
I disagree. He’s still listed on various lists as a top 15-25 player. A good team that is one piece away from serious contention could definitely use him. Of course, losing teams would not do the trade, that’s obvious. A team like the Clippers or 76ers could use him.
I wish I had a few more players who are on their last leg on my team averaging 22/5/5.
There are several other teams with assets who could use Butler this year, such as Brooklyn, OKC, Houston, Cleveland, Orlando. This trade deadline Pat will need to decide to “shit or get off the pot.” Jimmy’s window is closing fast.
Completely agree. To me, there’s only one thing that the Heat can’t do at this juncture – and that is ‘nothing’.
Amen!
even a few years ago in the bubble vs lakers he had an outrageous game 5 and had nothing left for game 6.i was wondering when the f is jimmy going to take over never happened.he needs help now cant sustain greatness the whole game like lebron greek etc.