Heat dialed up in 4th quarter
Bulls fade down stretch vs. Miami for 3rd loss in last 4 games
For weeks, coach Billy Donovan has emphasized that the Bulls need to win games by winning third quarters.
The Bulls won the third quarter Saturday night against the Miami Heat, using a 28-23 run to take their first lead of the night and redefine the rhythm of the game. But that effort wasn’t enough to hold off the Heat, who won 107-104 in a back-and-forth battle for the second spot in the Eastern Conference.
DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso took over the game coming out of the locker room to spur the Bulls’ second-half comeback. In a 28-point night, DeRozan reignited his scoring touch in the third quarter — breaking away for a fastbreak dunk, forcing his way to the foul line and going 6-for-7 from the field.
Caruso knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the Bulls’ deficit to 67-66 with 3 minutes, 43 seconds left in third, then hit a pair of free throws to give the Bulls the lead a minute later. The guard’s 22 points and full-court passing helped the Bulls stay alive as the game loosened up from end to end. Despite this surge, the Heat suffocated the Bulls slowly on both ends of the court by forcing mistakes. The Bulls’ 22 turnovers highlighted a slapdash night as top stars largely struggled to score against the Heat.
Zach LaVine went 4-from-10 from 3-point range and finished with 16 points. Nikola Vučević scored only seven points in his third game back from a COVID-19 absence. Lonzo Ball went 3-for-11 from 3-point range and scored 11 points.
The Heat’s lack of turnovers posed a challenge to the Bulls offense, which has averaged 20.7 points in transition this season. Turnovers don’t just fuel the Bulls’ scoring; the transition game is the central spark to the team’s energy, allowing the Bulls to set the tone on their home court and run opponents ragged.
The Heat only coughed up five turnovers in the first half, forcing the Bulls to play an uncomfortable amount of half-court offense.
Meanwhile, the Bulls committed 15 turnovers in the first half. Most of those were forced, but the Bulls also lacked sharpness at the start of their second of back-to-back games of the week.
The Heat forced sloppiness by blitzing DeRozan and LaVine, pressing the pair into isolation play. Physical challenges on cutting players contributed to Bulls turnovers as players struggled to maneuver the ball through the packed paint. The team slipped in and out of a full-court press, which further challenged the Bulls’ ball-handling abilities.
A cold start from 3-point range didn’t help the Bulls’ case. They went 5-for-17 from behind the arc in the first half and shot only 28.2% from long range on the night.
Despite an off-kilter start, the Bulls never let the Heat pull ahead by more than a handful of points. The Bulls snapped out of their first-half slump through feverish ball movement.
Caruso began flashing to the top of the paint to offer an outlet where he could pivot and quickly dump the ball off to teammates set up in the corner or slashing toward the rim. This small adjustment helped to open up the Bulls’ half-court game plan, allowing the team whip the ball around the arc to find open players. But half-court execution continued to plague the Bulls through the final whistle.