After bad loss to Bulls, Heat bounces back to crush Bulls one day later. Takeaways and details
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 134-91 win over the Chicago Bulls (24-26) on Sunday night at Kaseya Center to complete the back-to-back set and improve to 1-1 on its three-game homestand. Next up for the Heat (27-24) is a matchup against the Atlanta Hawks in Miami on Tuesday:
Less than 24 hours after an ugly loss to an injury-depleted Bulls team, the Heat earned revenge in the form of a 43-point blowout win over the Bulls to wrap up this rare three-game set between the two team.
Despite missing starters Josh Giddey (hamstring injury management), Nikola Vucevic (rest) and Coby White (calf injury management), the Bulls defeated the Heat 125-118 on Saturday night at Kaseya Center. It’s one of the worst losses of Miami’s season.
But on Sunday night, the Heat dominated the Bulls to earn its most lopsided win of the season. Sunday’s 43-point win is actually tied for the third-largest margin of victory in Heat history.
Miami also improved to a league-best 9-3 on the second night of back-to-backs this season.
“One thing I told our group is that we definitely have something,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Sunday’s win. “We are able to respond. We have the best record in the league on the second night of back-to-backs. It shows that we have some toughness and guys really care and they want to. It was a good response.”
The Heat opened Sunday’s contest on a 22-5 run and ended the first quarter with a 34-13 lead to set the tone for the night. Not only did the 21-point margin mark the most points that the Heat has won a first quarter by this season, but it also went down as the Bulls’ lowest scoring quarter of the season.
By halftime, the Heat was ahead by 22 points.
The Bulls struggled to make shots, shooting just 12 of 44 (27.3 percent) from the field and 2 of 21 (9.5 percent) on threes in Sunday’s first half. Miami also scored 16 points off 12 Chicago turnovers in the first two quarters.
The Heat never relented, pulling ahead by as many as 54 points in the second half amid the Bulls’ horrendous shooting.
Chicago shot just 32.2 percent from the field and 6 of 41 (14.6 percent) from three-point range in Sunday’s game. It marked the seventh-worst three-point shooting performance in terms of three-point shooting percentage by a team this season.
The Heat outscored the Bulls 42-18 from behind the arc.
“I think everyone was pretty frustrated at how we performed yesterday,” said Heat sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr., who totaled 14 points and five rebounds off the bench on Sunday. “We know we are a much better team than that. Obviously, we showed that tonight. We just want to keep this momentum going. I think everyone here is tired of being sick and tired. I think that’s the kind of mentality that we had going into this game.”
Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes, nine rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes. He spent the entire fourth quarter of the blowout win on the bench.
Adebayo was one of seven Heat players who finished Sunday’s win with double-digit points.
With Sunday’s victory, the Heat won two of the three games during this string of three consecutive matchups in a span of four days against the Bulls. The Heat defeated the Bulls in Chicago on Thursday, lost to the Bulls in Miami on Saturday and then crushed the Bulls in Miami on Sunday.
While back-to-back games against the same team is not unusual during the NBA regular season, this marks the first time in franchise history that the Heat has taken on the same opponent in three straight regular-season games. It’s also the first time two teams have played three straight regular-season games against each other since the Baltimore Bullets and Houston Rockets did it in 1972.
With Sunday’s win, the Heat also won the four-game regular-season series against the Bulls 3-1.
“That’s the thing that Spo is frustrated with,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s inconsistent play this season. “We can go out there and get 134 one night. And then it seems like the next night we’re not connected, everything is just falling apart. So for us, it’s how can we just sustain this type of way we’re playing.”
While starting guards Tyler Herro and Norman Powell remained out, the Heat got its starting point guard back after spending much of the last two weeks without him.
Heat starting point guard Davion Mitchell made his return on Sunday after missing eight of the last 10 games with a left shoulder sprain. He missed two games before returning for two games and then reaggravating the injury, forcing him to miss the last six games prior to returning Sunday.
Mitchell was immediately re-inserted into the Heat’s starting lineup, as he has now started in each of his 41 appearances this season.
Mitchell was part of a Heat starting lineup on Sunday that also included Simone Fontecchio, Pelle Larsson, Andrew Wiggins and Adebayo. It marked the 16th different Heat starting lineup this season.
While wearing a compression sleeve on his left shoulder and arm, Mitchell finished his return with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes, two rebounds, six assists and two steals in 21 minutes. He closed with a team-best plus/minus of plus 34.
“D. Mitch brings us that pace,” Spoelstra said. “There’s something about the way he pushes the ball and delivers it. He’s our best pitch-ahead guy. His tempo is great. The ball moves great when he’s in the game. And then defensively, he just gives us that next level point-of-attack defense, where he’s earned that reputation. ... It was terrific to have him back.”
Mitchell added that he felt “good” after his return.
“Kind of was tired after that first wind, because I hadn’t played in a game in a minute,” Mitchell said. “But after I got that first wind, I was good.”
But Powell, who was named an Eastern Conference All-Star reserve on Sunday, missed his second straight game on Sunday because of personal reasons.
And Herro missed his 10th straight game because of a rib injury on Sunday. It marked the 40th game that Herro has been unavailable for through the first 51 games of the Heat’s season.
Along with missing Herro and Powell, the Heat was without Nikola Jovic (right hip impingement) and Terry Rozier (not with team) on Sunday.
The Bulls were also short-handed, missing Kevin Huerter (back spasm) Jevon Carter (not with team), Zach Collins (toe sprain), Noa Essengue (shoulder surgery), Giddey (hamstring injury management), Tre Jones (hamstring strain) and Jalen Smith (calf tightness) for Sunday’s game in Miami.
With Jovic out, Spoelstra was forced to play Kel’el Ware for extended minutes on Sunday after cutting Ware’s playing time in recent days. Ware played well.
After playing a season-low three minutes in Saturday’s loss to the Bulls despite being available for the entire contest, Ware returned to double-digit minutes on Sunday with Jovic unavailable. Jovic has been used as the Heat’s backup center ahead of Ware for recent stretches.
But with Jovic sidelined, Ware impressed with 17 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes, six rebounds and one assist in 18 minutes off the bench.
The most important number was Ware’s positive plus/minus of plus 25 on Sunday. Spoelstra has implored Ware to find a way to contribute positive minutes, as the Heat entered Sunday having been outscored by 4.3 points per 100 possessions while Ware has been on the court this season.
“Kel’el gave us really solid minutes tonight,” Spoelstra said Sunday. “I was encouraged by his defensive activity. He’s part of that young gun crew, as well. And offensively he moved the ball when he needed to. He gave us the vertical spacing when he needed to. He shot the three when he needed to. So those things I think we can build on. It was a little bit of an uneven ten days, two weeks since the injury and then working him back into this. But it’s good to have him get some extended minutes tonight.”
Ware has now made 10 straight appearances off the bench after starting in 27 of his first 37 appearances this season. He has played fewer than 20 minutes in each of those 10 games as a reserve.
“We all just want to do better, and that includes the head coach. I have to do a better job with this group,” Spoelstra said, referring to his handling of the Heat’s youth.
Larsson continues to impress with his strong play on both ends of the court.
Larsson totaled 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range, four rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block in 24 minutes on Sunday.
Larsson was a force from the start, finishing the first quarter with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting on threes in the first quarter. He also blocked a dunk attempt from Bulls forward Julian Phillips in the opening period.
Larsson has now started in 11 straight games. He has averaged 13.5 points, five rebounds, 3.6 assists and one steal per game while shooting 55.6 percent shooting from the field and 9 of 27 (33.3 percent) shooting from three-point range during that 11-game stretch.
“He’s growing each month,” Spoelstra said of Larsson. “He’s gaining more confidence and we want to infuse him with that kind of confidence because he does all the intangibles, but he also has a talent on both sides of the floor. He does things that lead to winning.”
Larsson, 24, has proven to be an essential component of Miami’s rotation in his second NBA season after being taken by the Heat in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft.
Despite being pulled from the Heat’s starting lineup with Mitchell back from injury, rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis remained in the rotation amid the team’s injury issues.
Jakucionis moved to a bench role on Sunday after starting in the previous six games for the then-sidelined Mitchell.
Jakucionis, who was selected by the Heat with the 20th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, totaled four points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field and 0-of-2 shooting on threes, one rebound and nine assists to only one turnover in 19 minutes off the bench on Sunday. But Jakucionis struggled on the defensive end at times.
“He has great vision,” Spoelstra said of Jakucionis’ playmaking. “He’s fearless, so he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know right now. And he’s going to try to make plays, which we like.”
After playing only 53.7 seconds in the NBA through the Heat’s first 26 games of the season, the 19-year-old Jakucionis has now played in 24 of the Heat’s last 25 games.
Jakucionis was part of a Heat bench rotation on Sunday that also included Dru Smith, Jaquez, Ware and Myron Gardner. Miami then emptied its bench late in the lopsided win.
This story was originally published February 1, 2026 at 8:30 PM.
