Takeaways from Heat’s road win over Bulls, and the story behind Dragic’s big fourth quarter
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 101-90 win over the Chicago Bulls (16-20) on Friday night at United Center:
The two constants during this winning stretch for the Heat (20-18): Incredibly impactful play from Jimmy Butler and elite defense. Both things again made appearances Friday, but Goran Dragic was the late-game difference maker.
Butler finished with a team-high 28 points, to go with three rebounds, eight assists and four steals in 33 minutes. He has averaged 24.5 points on 50 percent shooting, 6.8 rebounds, 9.1 assists and 2.3 steals in the Heat’s last 10 games.
The Heat’s defense limited the Bulls to 90 points on 37.4 percent shooting. Miami owns the NBA’s fifth-best defensive rating this season and the top defensive rating since the start of February.
But because of its own shooting struggles, Miami still entered the fourth quarter with just a two-point lead.
That’s when Dragic took control of the contest, scoring 20 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter. He shot 7 of 10 from the field and 3 of 5 on threes in the final period, and all seven of his makes came on jump shots.
“The first half, I was passive. I was not aggressive,” Dragic said. “They played good defense. ... But the second half, I made that three and it opened up a little bit. And of course, Jimmy told me at one point, ‘Hey G, we need you to be more aggressive and try to get the ball and play more more pick and roll.’ When he went to the bench, then I did it.”
After Heat forward Duncan Robinson opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer, Dragic went on to score 20 of the team’s next 23 points to lead Miami to the win.
“I can just tell that the way the game was going, how they were guarding each and every individual, I knew it was Goran’s time,” Butler said of encouraging Dragic to take a more aggressive approach in the middle of Friday’s game. “He had made a couple of shots earlier, he was getting into the paint, as well. So it was time for him to take it up a notch, knock down some threes, middys, get to the cup, get to the free-throw line, and he was passing the ball well, as well.”
Dragic’s 20-point performance in the final period is the most he has scored in the fourth quarter of a regular-season game in his NBA career. The only time he scored more came when he recorded 23 points in the fourth quarter of a playoff game in 2010.
Dragic, 34, became just the third different Heat player to score 20 or more points in the fourth quarter of a game in franchise history. Dwyane Wade did it five times and holds the franchise record for the most points scored in a single fourth quarter with 24, and Kelly Olynyk scored 20 points in the fourth quarter of a game last season.
“He’s an All-Star, he’s a world champion,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Dragic. “He has a savviness and a competitiveness that when he senses his team really needs something that he can tap into all of his talent and previous experiences to be able to make big time plays like that. We saw that in the playoffs last year, and we needed it.”
All-Star guard Zach LaVine led the Bulls with a game-high 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 shooting on threes. The rest of Chicago’s roster totaled 60 points on 32 percent shooting.
With the Heat playing on the second night of a back-to-back and the second game of a grueling five-game-in-seven-day stretch, it used a 10-man rotation.
Starting center Bam Adebayo missed his third straight game because of left knee tendinitis, and second-year forward KZ Okapala again started in Adebayo’s place.
Okpala made his third straight start, alongside Kendrick Nunn, Robinson, Butler and Olynyk.
Okpala finished with four points and five rebounds in 25 minutes. On the defensive end, his versatility at 6-8 and 215 pounds allowed him to switch almost every Bulls action as he guarded every position on the court.
The Heat then used Dragic, Tyler Herro, Andre Iguodala, Chris Silva and Precious Achiuwa off the bench on Friday.
“This game was in the mud and back to backs, they are what they are. Both teams had to deal with it,” Spoelstra said. “But with the additional testing, it just can be crazy. You get in at 4 o’clock and you’re up at 9 testing. It’s not easy and this was a game you just had to stay the course, have some mental toughness. The guys had to make some plays, and Goran was just sensational in that fourth quarter.”
Along with missing Adebayo, the Heat was also without Avery Bradley and Meyers Leonard on Friday.
Bradley missed his 17th straight game because of a right calf strain. Leonard is out for the season after shoulder surgery, but is away from the team indefinitely after using an anti-Semitic slur earlier this week.
Adebayo and Bradley did not travel with the Heat to Chicago, and it’s unclear whether they’ll meet the team in Orlando for the final contest of Miami’s quick two-game trip on Sunday against the Magic.
The Heat played Silva ahead of Achiuwa for the first time this season in the second half of Thursday’s win over the Magic, and it happened again on Friday.
With Adebayo out, the Heat started Okpala alongside Olynyk and then used Silva as the first big man off the bench against the Bulls. Silva finished with four points, three rebounds and two blocks in 12 minutes.
Achiuwa eventually entered with 9:15 left in the second quarter but played just three minutes on Friday.
Achiuwa, who was limited to four minutes and did not play in the second half Thursday, totaled two points and one rebound in three minutes Friday. He did not play in the second half for the second straight game.
Thursday and Friday only marked Silva’s seventh and eighth appearances of the season, as he has been out of the rotation for most of the season and also missed 18 straight games because of a hip injury. This two-game stretch is Silva’s first game action since Jan. 16.
“His energy is absolutely contagious,” Spoelstra said of Silva. “If you notice, he can play three or four straight minutes. The average fan might say, ‘Why is he so gassed after that?’ That would be because he’s top percentile in terms of how hard he plays on every single possession. He’s leaving nothing in the tank.”
It looks like the Heat has solved its early-season turnover issues. The Bulls apparently have not.
Miami and Chicago have been among the league’s most turnover-prone teams this season. The Heat entered with the NBA’s second-highest turnover rate (percentage of plays that end with a team turnover) at 15.7 percent, and the Bulls entered with the third-highest turnover rate at 15.6 percent.
But the Heat has been much better in this area recently, pushing its turnover rate down to just 11.7 percent in the last five games. Miami, which has averaged 15.4 turnovers per game this season, has averaged only 12 turnovers during that five-game span.
The Bulls have not shown much improvement, though, with a turnover rate of 16.1 percent in the last five games. That’s even higher than its turnover rate for the season, and Chicago has averaged 16 turnovers during that five-game stretch.
Further evidence that the two teams are moving in different directions? The Heat committed 10 turnovers and the Bulls finished with 16 turnovers on Friday.
The Heat outscored the Bulls 14-6 in points off turnovers.
The surging Heat is now in fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Miami was in 13th place in the East about a month ago.
How has the Heat done it? 13 wins in the past 17 games to bounce back from a 7-14 start to the season, including a 9-1 record in the last 10 games.
The Heat stands 3.5 games behind the third-place Milwaukee Bucks and one-half game ahead of the fifth-place Boston Celtics. Miami is also just one game ahead of the sixth-place Charlotte Hornets and seventh-place New York Knicks.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 11:18 PM.
