Heat dispose of Bulls, claim final East playoff berth

Tyler Herro recorded 24 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists and the host Miami Heat punched their ticket to the playoffs with a convincing 112-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Friday night.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 21 points, six rebounds and six assists in the one-sided win in the final Eastern Conference play-in game. The Heat will face the top-seeded Boston Celtics on Sunday in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs. Miami and Boston met in the two last East finals, with Boston prevailing in 2022 and the Heat winning last season.

Miami dominated Friday’s contest even with star Jimmy Butler sitting out with an MCL injury to his right knee. Butler was injured in the Heat’s playin loss against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.

Kevin Love contributed 16 points and seven rebounds for the Heat, and Bam Adebayo scored 13 points.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of his players, “We have a bunch of Type-A competitors and I wanted them to enjoy it and embrace it and to be grateful to have a game like that where it’s not a pick-up game and a game that doesn’t have meaning.

“These are the games that you think about and reflect on later on where you’re like, ‘That game was fun.’ These games are fun. They are fun. I’d rather not be in the play-in game, but they’re fun. Our competitors enjoy that.”

DeMar DeRozan scored 22 points and Nikola Vucevic had 16 points, 14 rebounds and five assists for the Bulls. Coby White had just 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting after scoring 42 points against the Atlanta Hawks two nights earlier.

“We couldn’t get in a rhythm offensively,” DeRozan said. “We couldn’t get anything going. And they had a rhythm and hit shots when they needed.”

Miami shot 46.3 percent from the field on Friday, including 14 of 33 (42.4 percent) from 3-point range.

The Bulls made 38 percent of their attempts and were 13 of 43 (30.2 percent) from behind the arc.

The Bulls trailed 70-60 after a basket by Javonte Green with 3:15 left in the third quarter, and then Miami delivered the knockout punch.

Delon Wright and Herro made treys during the quarter-ending 12-0 run for an 82-60 lead, and Jaquez scored the first basket of the fourth quarter to push the lead to 24.