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 The Bulls, playing without injured starting guards Derrick Rose and
Jimmy Butler, stayed with Miami for three quarters before the Heat
dominated the fourth in a 118-96 victory.
Chicago (32-32) only trailed 84-81 starting the fourth, but was
outscored 34-15 in the final quarter and 64-38 in the second half.
After taking a 31-23 lead in the first quarters, the Bulls were
outscored 95-65 the rest of the game.
"We didn't start the game well," said Miami's Goran Dragic, who all
scorers with 26 points to go with nine assists and a plus-29 rating.
"They were making some shots and we didn't communicate well on
defense, but in the third and fourth quarter, we started to play
together. [We played] Miami Heat defense and forced them to make a
lot of turnovers, and then we [ran] it."
Led by rookie Josh Richardson, who scored 16 of his 22 points in the
fourth, the Heat used a 26-4 run to seize control of a game that had
been tightly contested. Former Bulls forward Luol Deng also
contributed to the run, scoring 10 of his 19 points in the fourth
and helping Miami contain Pau Gasol in the second half.
Gasol finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, one
assist shy of his third triple-double, but only had four points,
three rebounds and three assists in the last two quarters.
"They were aggressive and they got the best of me in the first
quarter, and I just knew that it was going to be a long game," Deng
said. "I just had to keep battling."
Joe Johnson had 15 points and Hassan Whiteside finished with 13
points and 16 rebounds for the Heat (38-27), who rebounded from a
loss Wednesday at the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bulls got double-figure scoring from Taj Gibson (13 points),
Doug McDermott (10 points), Aaron Brooks (11 points) and Justin
Holiday (14 points), who started after the decision was made prior
to the game to sideline Rose.
Chicago, which was swept in a back-to-back, is 10-20 since a
season-high six-game winning streak Dec. 28 to Jan. 7. Since that
streak, the Bulls have been besieged with multiple injuries to key
players and fallen outside the playoff mix in the Eastern
Conference.
Chicago remains a half game behind the eighth-place Detroit Pistons
in the conference standings after Detroit lost 118-103 at Charlotte
on Friday. The Bulls committed 18 more turnovers against the Heat
and have turned the ball over 82 times in their past four games.
Part of the issue is not having their starting guards healthy.
Butler has missed 16 of the past 17 games and Rose missed his 11th
game this season with his fifth separate ailment. Despite them not
playing, the Bulls started hot and led 31-23 after the first
quarter, when they shot 63.2 percent from the floor (12-of-19).
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"We do miss Jimmy and Derrick when they are not out there," Chicago
coach Fred Hoiberg said. "They give you two ball-handlers and two
guys [who] can play pick-and-roll. When we kept it simple, great
things happened. In that fourth quarter, we lost our minds."
The Heat cut into Chicago's lead in the second, but trailed 58-54 at
halftime thanks to Gasol's 13 points, nine rebounds, six assists,
two blocks and plus-10 rating.
As it turned out, that was the beginning of the end for Chicago.
The Heat took a 73-71 lead midway through the third on back-to-back
3-pointers by Dragic and Johnson, their first lead since the first
quarter, and used the momentum to spark the big run in the fourth.
"A lot more energy, a lot more effort [in the second half]," Heat
coach Erik Spoelstra said. "You could see, it looked like we were
two places at once. That doesn't come without an incredible energy
level spike there in the fourth quarter."
NOTES: The Bulls didn't have either of their usual backcourt
starters. PG Derrick Rose (groin) and SG Jimmy Butler (left knee)
were sidelined by injuries. Rose strained a groin in the fourth
quarter of Chicago's 109-101 loss at the San Antonio Spurs on
Thursday night. "He does have a strain in there," Bulls coach Fred
Hoiberg said. "I don't know how serious or long he'll be out. It's a
day-to-day type thing is what it looks like right now." ... Butler
went through a workout Friday and reported no setbacks afterward. He
has missed the past two games because of his sprained left knee,
which was aggravated in a March 5 game against the Houston Rockets
in his first game back after missing 13. Butler will try to play
three-on-three in practice Saturday, followed by five-on-five
Sunday. He might return during an upcoming two-game road trip to
Toronto and Washington, D.C. ... Heat PG Dwyane Wade played with a
deep thigh bruise that happened during a collision in Miami's
previous game on Wednesday at the Milwaukee Bucks.
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