Heat reaches 20-game mark at 13-7. Takeaways and details from quality road win over Bulls
The Miami Heat’s three-day stay in Chicago included Thanksgiving dinner, a rare practice during its busy schedule and one of its best wins of the season.
After a two-day break in Chicago, the Heat rallied from a six-point fourth-quarter deficit to earn a 107-104 win over the Bulls (13-8) on Saturday night at the United Center in a battle between two of the Eastern Conference’s top teams so far this season.
The Heat, which closed its four-game trip at 2-2, is 13-7 at the 20-game mark.
“We are where we are,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked where the Heat stands after 20 games. “I’m not going to give a grade and I’m not at all in that state right now to give an analysis of where we are. We’re just grinding.
“We’ve had these really good tough competitive experiences on the road. This is the way it is on the road and I think we’ve gotten better from these experiences.”
The Bulls led by six points with 11:07 remaining in the fourth quarter. But the Heat responded with a 28-13 run to take control and pull ahead by nine with 2:15 to play.
It was competitive game throughout between two of the NBA’s best teams over the first month of the season. The second half included eight lead changes.
So it was no surprise that Chicago did not go away. With the Heat ahead by eight in the final minute, DeMar DeRozan scored five straight points to cut the Bulls’ deficit to just three with 25.9 seconds left.
But the Heat generated an open layup for guard Kyle Lowry on a pretty inbound play out of a timeout on the next possession to increase its lead to five and essentially end the Bulls’ hopes of rallying.
Five Heat players finished with double-digit points led by a team-high and season-high 20 points from guard Gabe Vincent off the bench.
Lowry recorded 19 points, five rebounds and six assists.
Jimmy Butler contributed 18 points, four rebounds, five assists and five steals.
Bam Adebayo tallied nine points, seven rebounds and six assists.
“I think everybody played their part,” Butler said. “We stayed together through the ups and downs. Definitely a game of runs. They made some shots. We made some shots. But in the end, we got the ball where it needed to go, got some stops and pulled out the win.”
The Bulls were sloppy, committing a season-high 23 turnovers. Chicago also shot just 11 of 39 (28.2 percent) from three-point range.
DeRozan led the Bulls with a game-high 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting.
The Heat now returns to Miami for another quick two-game homestand that begins on Monday against the Denver Nuggets. It will mark the first meeting between the Heat and Nuggets since Nuggets center Nikola Jokic shoved Heat forward Markieff Morris to the court from behind in retaliation to a hard foul on Nov. 8 in Denver.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Bulls:
The Heat has struggled late in close games recently, but its offense came alive in the fourth quarter on Saturday.
After totaling 72 points on just 40.3 percent shooting from the field and 7-of-27 (25.9 percent) shooting on threes through the first three quarters on Saturday, Miami finally began hitting shots in the fourth quarter.
The Heat scored 35 points on 52.6 percent shooting from the field and 7-of-13 shooting on threes in the final period to outscore the Bulls 35-30 in the fourth.
“These shared experiences of these tough games, close games on the road, these are invaluable,” Spoelstra said. “It doesn’t always go the way you want it to go, but how you approach it and are you learning from it, are you trying to get better at it.”
Vincent and Lowry led the late charge for the Heat.
Vincent scored 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter with the help of 4-of-6 shooting from deep.
“Just try to stay aggressive,” Vincent said of his mentality in Saturday’s fourth quarter. “Try to take my shots when they were there. Be a little bit more aggressive than I was early. Earlier I turned down some looks to try to find guys. But stayed aggressive, shot my shot, it went in and just tried to continue to make the right play.”
Lowry scored 11 points in the fourth quarter on 3-of-5 shooting from three-point range.
Butler scored all five of his fourth-quarter points in the final 2:15 of Saturday’s game.
Butler, Lowry and Vincent combined to score 32 of the Heat’s 35 points in the fourth quarter. Max Strus made a three to score the remaining points in the period.
The Heat posted its third-best fourth-quarter offensive rating of the season on Saturday, scoring at a pace of 134.6 points per 100 possessions in the period.
Despite its recent late-game struggles, Miami still owns the NBA’s eighth-best offensive rating in the fourth quarter. The Heat also improved to 4-4 in clutch games, which is defined as a game that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
“I really do like the approach of this group,” Spoelstra said. “Just to come in and try to continue to get better every single day. Then obviously we had some big plays down the stretch. Gabe was really good, got going in that second half. We were just trying to find solutions against a very good defense. Kyle had some really aggressive timely plays and then Jimmy those two plays down the stretch were key. But at least we were more organized. It always helps when the ball goes in.”
The Heat learned that it would be without one of its best players on Saturday just before the start of its game against the Bulls.
Sixth man extraordinaire Tyler Herro was a late scratch for the Heat. He surfaced on the injury report less than two hours before tipoff because of overall body soreness and Spoelstra said during his pregame media session that Herro is “under the weather.”
Herro, 21, was on the active roster against the Bulls, leaving open the possibility of him playing if he felt better during the game. But Herro was ultimately ruled out of the contest just minutes before it began.
“He started to feel a little bit off last night,” Spoelstra said Saturday. “Same thing this morning.”
It marked just the second game that Herro has missed this season. He also sat out the Heat’s Nov. 18 win over the Washington Wizards because of a bruised right wrist.
Herro is the NBA’s leading bench scorer this season.
With Herro unavailable, Strus was back in the Heat’s bench rotation.
Vincent played ahead of Strus off the bench in the previous two games, which marked Strus’ only two healthy scratches of the season.
But with Herro out, Strus filled his spot in the bench rotation.
The Heat played four reserves against the Bulls: Caleb Martin, Dewayne Dedmon, Vincent and Strus.
Strus finished with 13 points and four rebounds in 31 minutes. He shot 1 of 7 on threes.
Dedmon was ejected with 11:07 left in the fourth quarter after kicking a chair on the Heat’s bench in frustration. The seat cushion went flying into the crowd.
“I think he underestimated how strong he was,” Spoelstra said of Dedmon’s ejection for kicking a chair. “I did not see it. [James Williams] and the officiating crew basically interpreted the letter of the law on it that I guess the pad went into the stands. But that was not Dewayne’s intention at all. So when we brought it in, we made him player of the game.”
Duncan Robinson did not play late in the game, but it was an eventful night for him.
Robinson finished with 16 points on 4-of-11 shooting from three-point range. He did not play in the fourth quarter, with Vincent and Strus instead used down the stretch.
But with his first three-pointer on Saturday, Robinson moved past Goran Dragic for sole possession of fifth place among the Heat’s all-time leaders for threes made. Robinson has hit 562 three-pointers during his Heat career and is 95 away from catching Mario Chalmers (657 threes) for fourth place on the list.
Robinson also extended his streak of consecutive regular-season games with a made three-pointer to 68, which is a franchise record.
In addition, Robinson has appeared in 167 consecutive games dating back to April 9, 2019, which is the second-longest streak in franchise history behind Glen Rice’s 174 consecutive games played.
Saturday marked the Heat’s ninth road game in 11 games and the end of a week-long four-game trip. But it was the Bulls that were at a disadvantage because of the schedule.
Chicago was playing on the second night of a back-to-back after defeating the Magic 123-88 on Friday in Orlando. The Bulls then took the three-hour flight back home overnight.
Saturday also was the Bulls’ fifth game in seven days.
Meanwhile, the Heat arrived to Chicago early Thursday morning for a two-day break between Wednesday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Saturday’s matchup against the Bulls.
“I think that they’re one of the best teams not only in the East, but in the league,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “It’s just kind of the way the NBA is. You’re going to have scheduling situations like this and there will probably be times in the year where Miami is dealing with what we’re dealing with. It just kind of goes with it.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2021 at 10:38 PM.
