Another second-half collapse dooms Heat in ugly loss to Bulls. Takeaways and postgame reaction
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 133-124 loss to the Chicago Bulls (22-29) on Tuesday night at United Center on the front end of a back-to-back set to fall to 1-1 on its four-game trip. The Heat (24-24) continues the trip on Wednesday against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun) to complete the road back-to-back set:
Considering the Heat led by double digits in the fourth quarter and was playing a team in flux, this was a bad loss.
The Bulls entered as a team in flux after trading Zach Lavine to the Sacramento Kings as part of a three-team deal that also sent De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs.
The Bulls acquired Zach Collins, Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter in the trade that was finalized Sunday night, but none of them were available to play Tuesday against the Heat.
The Heat also held an 12-point lead with 10:55 left in the fourth quarter.
But the Bulls went on to close the game on a big 37-16 run on their way to the comeback win, as another late-game collapse doomed the Heat.
After totaling 103 points on 54.5 percent shooting from the field and 16-of-35 (45.7 percent) shooting from three-point range through the first three quarters, the Heat went cold to score just 21 points on 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from the field and 1-of-9 (11.1 percent) shooting on threes in the fourth quarter during its late-game collapse.
The Heat also committed 10 turnovers in the second half that the Bulls scored 17 points on.
The Heat lost despite turning in its second-highest first half of the season, scoring 70 points in the first two quarters behind 54.3 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) shooting from three-point range to take a 10-point lead into halftime.
The Heat’s 124 points on Tuesday also matched its fourth-highest scoring game of the season.
“We put up 124,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “That’s enough to win in this league. It’s just sad we let the other side really cost us the game.”
The Heat’s defense was that poor, as the Bulls finished the win with 133 points on 52.7 percent shooting from the field and 19-of-41 (46.3 percent) shooting from three-point range.
“We were never able to really contain the ball regardless of what scheme we were in,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Yeah, that’s just a tough one. Our defense didn’t travel tonight and we paid the price.”
Tuesday marked the Heat’s seventh loss this season after pulling ahead by double digits in the second half. Miami also fell to 6-20 this season when allowing 110 or more points.
“We’re much better than what we showed tonight,” Spoelstra added. “It’s just a tough lesson. ... We just never fully got our grips around this game defensively.”
Four Bulls players (Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey, Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu) finished with more than 20 points.
Buzelis, the 11th pick in the 2024 draft, produced an eye-opening stat line of 24 points on 10-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting on threes in 31 minutes.
Giddey contributed 24 points, five rebounds and seven assists.
White added 22 points and seven assists.
Dosunmu finished with 21 points and nine assists.
Adebayo and Tyler Herro each scored a team-high 23 points for the Heat.
“We just couldn’t get a stop down the stretch, whether we were in zone or man,” Heat second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “As a collective spirit, we just weren’t there. That’s something that we’re struggling with as a team. But it’s something that we’re going to get over and we’re going to get past.”
Heat center Kel’el Ware celebrated his Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month award with another standout performance. But it still ended in a loss.
Ware, who was named the NBA’s East Rookie of the Month on Tuesday afternoon for games played in January, closed Tuesday’s defeat with 17 points and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes. The problem is the Heat was outscored by 11 points with Ware on the court Tuesday.
Ware, who the Heat selected with the 15th overall in the 2024 Draft, is the sixth different Heat player in franchise history to earn the Rookie of the Month honor. That list also includes Caron Butler (2002-03 season), Michael Beasley (2008-09 season), Josh Richardson (2015-16 season), Kendrick Nunn (2019-20 season) and Jaquez (2023-24 season).
“This has been a bigger jump,” Spoelstra said before Tuesday’s game when asked about Ware’s Rookie of the Month honor. “It doesn’t mean that all the jumps are going to be this dramatic. I think if you just stay steady to it .... Now this will be, I talked to him about it, this will be another good adjustment for him — dealing with everybody praising you. It’s a good thing. But then you have to manage success and have the same type of humility and work ethic that you had when nobody was paying attention to him.
“It’s a whole lot easier to do it at that point. But he’s been steady with his work, his approach, his coachability and you’re seeing the improvement from all of that and you like to see somebody get rewarded for that.”
The 20-year-old Ware logged double-digit minutes in just two of the Heat’s first 25 games this season. But he has since lifted himself into this season’s NBA Rookie of the Year conversation after receiving consistent playing time, as he has now played double-digit minutes in 23 consecutive games while starting in seven straight games.
Herro is among the NBA’s best three-point shooters, but he’s in the middle of a mini slump from behind the arc.
Herro entered Tuesday with the third-most made threes in the NBA this season. He also held the fifth-best three-point shooting percentage (39.4 percent) among the 12 players averaging nine or more three-point attempts per game this season behind only Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Detroit’s Malik Beasley, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell and Golden State’s Stephen Curry.
But after shooting 0 for 7 on threes in Saturday’s win over the San Antonio Spurs, Herro missed his first six three-point attempts on Tuesday before making three straight threes and finishing the loss 3 of 11 from behind the arc.
Herro has shot just 3 of 18 (16.7 percent) on threes over the last two games.
How unusual is this for Herro?
Without a three-point make on Saturday, Herro’s streak of regular-season games with a made three-pointer ended at 79. It goes down as the longest such streak in Heat history and is tied for the 12th-longest such streak in NBA history.
Herro finished Tuesday’s loss with 23 points on 5-of-15 shooting from the field, 3-of-11 shooting on threes and 10-of-11 shooting from the foul line.
While Herro didn’t make many outside shots, he did record eight rebounds and nine assists in the defeat.
The Heat used veteran guard Alec Burks for the first time in two weeks.
Burks entered Tuesday with 25 appearances (all off the bench) through the Heat’s first 47 games this season. His playing time has fluctuated throughout the season and he came into Tuesday with five consecutive DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision).
But Burks received his first game action since Jan. 21 on Tuesday, entering with 2:01 left in the first quarter.
Burks finished Tuesday’s loss with nine points on 3-of-7 shooting from deep, four rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
After opening Tuesday’s contest with the starting lineup of Herro, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith, Adebayo and Ware for the fifth straight game, the Heat used a bench rotation of Terry Rozier, Jaquez, Nikola Jovic and Burks against the Bulls.
Jovic scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 5-of-7 shooting on threes in 36 minutes off the bench.
Jaquez recorded 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line, four rebounds and five assists in 22 minutes off the bench.
Highsmith was the only Heat player who posted a positive plus/minus (plus 4) in Tuesday’s loss, but Spoelstra opted not to play him in the fourth quarter.
The only available Heat players who did not get into Tuesday’s game were Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson, Josh Christopher and Kevin Love.
As the NBA’s trade deadline looms, the Heat has another basketball game to play on Wednesday.
After Tuesday’s loss, the Heat took a flight to Philadelphia for Wednesday night’s game against the 76ers to complete its ninth back-to-back set of the season. 76ers star center Joel Embiid won’t play against the Heat after logging 36 minutes in his return from a knee injury on the front end of their back-to-back — a win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
The Heat is 5-3 on the second night of back-to-backs this season.
“We’re going to get better, we’re going to learn from this and we got another one tomorrow,” Jaquez said. “That’s the beauty of this game.”
All the while, the Heat continues to try to find a trade for disgruntled six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler as the deadline approaches. But a deal is far from guaranteed because of the challenges that the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement have created to limit player movement paired with Butler’s unique situation.
The Phoenix Suns are still the team pushing the hardest to land Butler ahead of Thursday’s deadline and also seemingly appear to be Butler’s preferred trade destination, according to league sources. The Golden State Warriors have also emerged as a potential trade destination for Butler.
Rumblings began Tuesday night of a potential three-team trade involving the Heat, Warriors and Suns that could involve Kevin Durant and Jimmy Butler.
The Heat is expected to be in New York for Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, making the short trip from Philadelphia to New York on Thursday morning.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 10:32 PM.
