Takeaways: Heat suffers costly late-season loss to Bulls, sinks deeper into 10th place in East
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 119-111 loss to the Chicago Bulls (37-43) on Wednesday night at United Center to begin its final trip of the regular season — a two-game stretch away from home. The Heat (36-44) ends the trip on Friday against the Pelicans in New Orleans before wrapping up the regular season on Sunday in Miami:
After all that has happened during this turbulent season, the Heat had an opportunity to put itself in position to at least host one play-in tournament game or carve out an easier play-in tournament path with a win on Wednesday. But the Heat didn’t take advantage.
Instead, the Bulls earned an eight-point win to sweep their three-game regular-season series over the Heat.
“We all burned the boats, both teams, focusing on this game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I haven’t thought about anything else. Our mindset was to get this game and they played better than we did. They deserved it and that’s the biggest takeaway from it.”
The Heat started fast, pulling ahead by 11 points just four minutes into the game and then pulling ahead by eight points with 5:05 left in the second quarter.
But the Bulls responded by closing the first half on a 20-6 run to enter halftime with a six-point advantage.
The Bulls’ surge continued after halftime, beginning the third quarter on a 23-15 to extend their lead to 14 points midway through the third quarter.
The Heat tried to put together a comeback, cutting the deficit to five with 6:26 left in the fourth quarter. But the Bulls came back with an 8-2 run to push their lead to 13 with 4:37 to play.
The Heat attempted one final rally, pulling within five points with 54.3 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter on a Tyler Herro three-pointer.
On the Bulls’ next possession, Herro stole the ball from Coby White near midcourt and came away with the ball in the open court for an opportunity to cut the deficit to three and make it a one possession game on an easy transition layup. But instead, Herro picked up his dribble and opted for a 27-foot pull-up three that rimmed out with 41.6 seconds left.
“I was feeling that shot. It’s as simple as that,” Herro said of his decision to go for the three instead of the easy two. “It’s the shot I was feeling. Looking back at it now, obviously, after missing the shot, I should have laid the ball up.”
The Bulls took advantage of Herro’s missed three, as rookie Matas Buzelis hit a corner three-pointer on the ensuing possession to extend Chicago’s lead to eight with 31.2 seconds to play.
That six-point swing in the Bulls’ favor shut the door on the Heat’s comeback hopes.
“What I’ll say is Tyler has a fearlessness that you can’t take for granted,” Spoelstra said. “He’s hit so many big shots. He wants to take on anything to help you win and he’s had a lot of big plays offensively, especially in fourth quarters, in his time with us. And it’s my job now to also coach him in situational basketball.”
Herro closed the loss with a game-high 30 points for the Heat on 13-of-26 shooting from the field and 2-of-7 shooting on threes.
Bam Adebayo added 18 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 4-of-6 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and three assists.
But the Bulls had three players score 20 or more points on Wednesday. Josh Giddey led the way for Chicago with a triple-double performance that included 28 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists.
Kevin Huerter added 22 points and Nikola Vucevic recorded 20 points for the Bulls.
Following Wednesday’s defeat, the Heat has now blown a double-digit lead in an NBA-high 22 losses this season.
This loss means the Heat will likely finish the regular season as the Eastern Conference’s 10th-place team and need two consecutive road wins in the play-in tournament just to make the playoffs.
The 10th-place Heat (36-44) fell one game behind the ninth-place Chicago Bulls (37-43) and 1.5 games behind the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks (37-42).
Meanwhile, the Magic (40-40) clinched seventh place in the Eastern Conference with its win over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.
While the Heat can still finish anywhere between eighth place and 10th place in the East, it’s going to need a lot of help to move out of 10th place in the final days of the regular season.
With the Bulls now having one fewer loss than the Heat and also holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over Miami after sweeping the three-game regular-season series, the Heat needs to win its final two regular-season games (at Pelicans and vs. Washington Wizards) and also have the Bulls lose their final two regular-season games (vs. Wizards and at Philadelphia 76ers) to pass Chicago in the standings.
With the Hawks (37-42) now having two fewer losses than the Heat but Miami holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over Atlanta by virtue of a better division record, the Heat needs to win its final two regular-season games and also have the Hawks lose two of their final three regular-season games (at Brooklyn Nets, at 76ers and vs. Magic) to pass Atlanta in the standings.
If the Heat, Bulls and Hawks all finished with 44 losses, the Heat would still enter the play-in tournament in 10th place in the East because it holds the worst head-to-head record between the three teams at 2-5. The Bulls would close in seventh place and the Hawks would come in eighth place in this scenario.
The East’s play-in game between the No. 7 Magic and No. 8 team will be played on Tuesday, April 15 at a time still to be determined and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup, which will be hosted by the seventh-place Magic, earns the conference’s seventh playoff seed.
The East’s play-in game between the No. 9 team and No. 10 team will be played on Wednesday, April 16 at a time still to be determined and aired on ESPN. The Heat — as the 10th-place team — would go on the road to face the Bulls in Chicago in this game if the current standings hold, with the loser of this matchup eliminated from playoff contention.
Then the East’s play-in game between the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game and the winner of the No. 9 vs. No. 10 game will be played on Friday, April 18 and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup, which will be hosted by the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game, earns the conference’s eighth playoff seed.
If the Heat finishes the regular season in ninth or 10th place, it would need to win two straight games in the play-in tournament just to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed. Closing the regular season in eighth place means the Heat would get two chances to win one play-in game to make the playoffs as either the East’s No. 7 or No. 8 seed.
The Heat has just two games left to play this regular season.
“The journey is going to be a little harder, but it’s nothing that we can’t handle,” Heat forward Andrew Wiggins said.
Another big reason for the Heat’s loss on Wednesday? The game was played at the Bulls’ speed.
The Heat entered playing at the NBA’s fourth-slowest pace (96.8 possessions per 48 minutes) this season.
The Bulls entered playing at the NBA’s second-fastest pace (103.6 possessions per 48 minutes) this season.
In a battle between two contrasting styles, the game was clearly played on the Bulls’ terms. Wednesday’s contest was played at a pace of 102.5 possessions per 48 minutes, as Chicago ran off Miami’s makes and misses.
“Their pace is frenetic, it’s relentless,” Spoelstra said. “You don’t have an opportunity to have a break, either physically or mentally.”
The Bulls finished the eight-point win with a 24-15 edge in fast-break points, scoring all 24 of their transition points in the first three quarters. The Heat fell to 2-5 this season when its opponent finishes with more than 22 fast-break points.
“It’s always a matter of control,” Spoelstra added. “Who can impose their will on the game? Whose game is having more of an impact to decide it? And it was pretty clear that their game, they were getting to it and dictating the tenor and feel much more than we were.”
Wiggins was back in the mix for the Heat, but he didn’t play his normal allotment of minutes and looked a bit limited physically in his first game in nearly two weeks.
Wiggins made his return Wednesday after missing the previous six games because of right hamstring tendinopathy. He finished the loss with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 shooting on threes, six rebounds and five assists in 27 minutes.
Wiggins was immediately re-inserted into the starting lineup, as he has now started in each of his first 16 appearances with the Heat since he was acquired from the Golden State Warriors in the Feb. 6 Jimmy Butler trade.
The Heat went with a starting lineup of Herro, Alec Burks, Wiggins, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware on Wednesday.
Wiggins made his first shot of the night — a three-pointer from the right wing — just 44 seconds into the game. He missed four of his next five shots, but went on to score eight points in the second half.
“He was better in the second half,” Spoelstra said of Wiggins. “And look, it’s not easy being out and then all of a sudden going back in. If you’re going back into a normal NBA game, he probably would have had a much better flow. This had a playoff feel to it.”
Wiggins appeared to labor around the court at times and received treatment on his ailing hamstring following the game.
“I felt solid,” Wiggins said when asked how he felt physically in his return. “If you’re out there on the court, then no complaints. You got to be 100 percent, so I felt good.”
The Heat is now dealing with a new injury to a rotation player.
Heat rookie Pelle Larsson was ruled out for Wednesday’s game just before tipoff after spraining his right ankle while lifting weights before the contest.
Prior to missing Wednesday’s loss, Larsson started the previous six games in place of the injured Wiggins. Larsson played well, too, averaging 10.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game during that six-game stint.
But with Wiggins back, the expectation was that Larsson would return to a reserve role against the Bulls.
Instead, Larsson missed his fifth game this season because of an injury. He also was sidelined for four games in December because of a sprained right ankle.
With Larsson out, the Heat used a bench rotation of Davion Mitchell, Haywood Highsmith, Kyle Anderson and Duncan Robinson.
Mitchell was the Heat’s only reserve who finished with double-digit points on Wednesday, totaling 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting on threes, three rebounds, eight assists, four steals and one block in 36 minutes.
Along with missing Larsson, the Heat was also without Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Kevin Love (personal reasons), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (right foot discomfort) against the Bulls.
The Bulls were without Lonzo Ball (right wrist sprain), Ayo Dosunmu (left shoulder surgery) and Tre Jones (left midfoot sprain) against the Heat.
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 10:25 PM.
