The Miami Heat had several chances to put away the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night. In what turned out to be a game of runs for both teams, Miami was on the wrong end of a fourth quarter collapse that put the game out of reach in the final minutes.
The Bulls secured the 133-124 win, spearheaded by their dominant 39-21 advantage in that last period.
It was a strong night offensively for the Heat, but too many defensive lapses and costly turnovers wound up costing them. They shot much better than the box score shows, although a cold stretch with the game on the line made it look worse. Miami finished the night going 48% from the field and 39% from 3-point range.
But the Bulls never took their foot off the gas from start to finish, as they totaled a strong 53% shooting and 46% from deep on the night. They were led by the offensive play of Josh Giddey, Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu. Giddey and White finished with 24 and 22 points, respectively, along with 7 assists each.
However, it was their rookie Matas Buzelis who brought the real spark to their rotation. He added 24 points in 31 minutes off the bench while going a perfect 10 of 10 from the field.
For the Heat, the frontcourt duo of Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware had their imprints on the game early. Adebayo tied for a team-high of 23 points and 8 rebounds on 10 of 17 shooting, and stepped up again in the clutch for some much needed buckets in the fourth. He had the midrange going all night and continued his recent strong stretch of play.
Ware was the story of the entire first half, although cooled off a bit. He wasn’t getting as many looks following halftime but still totaled a 17 points and 12 rebounds double-double with efficient 8 of 12 shooting overall.
It has been a rough few games for newly named All-Star Tyler Herro, who has seen his efficiency drop a bit as of late. Despite the strong playmaking in the game, he was sloppy with the basketball against the Bulls— committing some costly turnovers.
Miami got solid bench contributions led by Nikola Jovic’s 20 points on 70% shooting. However, Terry Rozier struggles have quickly returned following a solid outing in San Antonio over the weekend. He shot just 2 of 12 in his 29 minutes, and questionably stayed in the game for the Heat with their closing lineup despite his poor shooting night.
The Bulls loss dropped them back to an even .500 mark once again at a 24-24 record, and dipped back to the East’s seventh seed. They had a golden opportunity to come within reach of fifth in the conference, but instead their inconsistency continues as everyone waits for potential trade deadline roster reinforcements.
The Heat will have a chance to respond quickly with the second night of a road back-to-back versus the Philadelphia 76ers.
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This loss is entirely on Spo. He had 2-12 Rozier in the game almost the entire 4th quarter. He had “The Locksmith” who could have clamped down on Chicago’s scorers sitting on the bench? Duncan, who scored 8 points on 3-5 shooting only played 11 minutes? Burks had 9 points on 3-8 shooting (3-7 from 3) played only 18 minutes. Why does he keep playing someone who is ice cold and keep players with special offensive/defensive skills on the bench and not use them when their skills are needed?
Is it me or does it seem that Spoelstra has lost his touch in the past year? Poor substitution decisions, failing to challenge obvious erroneous referee calls (there was another one in 4th quarter last night that turned the tide for Chicago), failing to use certain players when their skills are needed, failing to call timeouts when opposing teams are on long scoring runs, etc. He sometimes looks very haggard, as though he is preoccupied, exhausted, worried or fatigued. I’m wondering if his divorce continues to take it’s toll on him after these many months? With 3 children and a hectic schedule, it can’t be easy.
https://allucanheat.com/questionable-erik-spoelstra-decision-cost-the-heat-a-win-in-chicago?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
All that plus the untenable Butler situation? Yeah, that would drive anyone to distraction.
spot on sun doesnt chris quinn malik allen help spobot out or suggest something?
why is terry rozier playing period.how many bad games does it take for a player to be benched spo scratcher
You are right, I have noticed it too. Questonable decisions, mistakes piling up. He hasn’t been good lately. But the whole team seems to be stuck, there’s no consistency, no improvement. We need some changes. Let’s hope something will materialize in the time remaining.
We wasted an entire offseason waiting and waiting for the opportunity to re-sign LeBron and ended up with Napier.
We wasted an entire offseason waiting and waiting for the opportunity to sign Damian Lillard and ended up with Bryant.
We waste an entire trading period trying to trade Butler and so far ended up with nothing. Having Butler on this roster 25 hours from now will be an unmitigated disaster.
The Butler saga and poor team play and personnel use like we saw last night is overshadowing the happiness we should be feeling for another stellar effort (17/12) by the best center we have had since Zo (if we consider Shaq was a short term rental). And Ware can do some things Zo couldn’t do because of his massive wingspan.
I don’t really care. We are not good this year, and trading Butler for some vets could mean less playing time for our young players.
If we can trade Rosier for a real point guard, then that’s that for me. And of course, Butlers suspension till the end of the season.
he needs zo nastiness .like to see him play with a little of that attitude.how would u feel trading bam for a good two way wing and putting jovic at the 4.dont think ware can totally flourish with bam on the team.
While we do have a need for a solid wing, I am actually liking the Ban/Ware front line. It has allowed Bam to roam and defend on the perimeter more and he is a solid 1 to 4 1/2 defender (not so much on true 5s).
i think ware can really show us his whole game to get something good u have to give up something good.id rather keep them both rc but im not seeing a fa wing coming here with 2 way skills.guys want to play with the best teams
I don’t think Ware can totally flourish WITHOUT Bam on the team. Bam does things he can’t do and visa versa. They are Yin and Yang (they are interconnected and balance each other out).
The Heat has solved their starting SG, PF and C issues. Now they need to solve their PG and SF problems.
I sure would like to see Stevens and Johnson get some playing time. They are both potentially key future rotation pieces for the Heat.
Rozier had no business playing all them minutes in the 4th quarter, I wonder if he bet on himself to play that that crappy, very disappointing.
Well, that could be one of the worst games in the season. Just not Miami Heat kind of game. No defense at all.
But then, this is a rooster full of young players which will have games like this.
I think Rosier should be permanently benched. I cant watch him any more.
Let two way players play. They cant be worse then him.
The Philly game, even without Embiid, should be telling. The game last night exposed the problems with the Heat’s line-up, that only shows up in certain games. What I delicately refer to as Pat’s social experiment is a roster full of a redundancy of skillsets, where the scoring skills are varied but the limitations are similar. The other way to put it nicely is there is a lack of two way players. How it hurts us is we don’t have enough players who can find their own shot. It hurts us defensively in that we always have to double so much that the threes we give up are often wide open. The other way it hurts on defense is several of our defenders can be powered right thru. It often shows up more in the fourth quarter where the teams with more two way players can lock down on us. We also have trouble bringing the ball up and committing turnovers due to lack of a true point guard.
I admire Pat for his stance as I think he is addressing some incongruencies in the expectations and treatments of players. This social experiment, which is too much an outlier in today’s NBA to be considered mere coincidence, has been taken a bit too far. This roster needs some revamping, although not a complete reset, with perhaps at least two to three more two way players, players with more varied skillsets, particularly on defense. Let’s hope we get someone who can start moving us in that direction from the Jimmy trade.
social experiment lol not enough athletes.at times we look like a roster from the 1960s.meanwhile bucks get kuzma for old and injured middleton.stand pat doing nada .at least ship terry out of town please.we aint getting sht for me me pat.might be better off sitting with him trying to get his head on straight for this year and let him gtfoh next year.lgh
Kuzma was the player I wanted for us. The deadline is just over 24 hours away. It’s now realistic to be concerned. If there is no deal it will disappoint every Heat fan.
True on both counts
OUCH!!! did not follow the last half. was hopeful it was a w…but ouch!