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Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls
Tough news arrived Thursday afternoon for the Miami Heat as it has been ruled following an MRI that Jimmy Butler has a sprained MCL and will be sidelined for several weeks. On top of that, Terry Rozier is out as well with an injury. This leaves Miami welcoming the Chicago Bulls for a do or die game as a final chance to get into the postseason. Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo are going to have to step up if they want to continue this season.
Tyler Herro indeed took over as he stated after the game that he was trying to fill in Jimmy's role as much as he could finishing the game with 24 points and a assist shy of a triple-double. Rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr continues to have a fantastic first year in the league finishing the game with 21 points. Kevin Love would follow with 16 points and then Bam Adebayo who entered the box score with 13 points. Bam is going to need more if Miami heads into the first round of the playoffs which would be against Boston.
As you would expect it was DeMar DeRozan for the Chicago Bulls who led the way scoring 22 points and would get help from Nikola Vucevic who logged 16 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 assists. Coby White would go ahead and score 13 points as Chicago really missed the production from Alex Caruso who played but played injured from their play-in win over the Hawks. The Bulls did not spend a day over .500 during the regular season.
You can tell the Heat wanted this one as they started the game on a 19-0 run which was the longest run of consecutive points for Miami all season. After just one quarter the Heat had opened up a 17-point lead followed by a 20-point lead heading into the dressing room at halftime. Nikola Jovic contributed with 11 points helping the team in that run. The Miami defense kept Chicago shooting at 38% even though the Bulls did hold the Heat to only 13 points in the second.
The game went cold at times as the Bulls had a stretch where they missed 14 out of their 15 shots and for Miami they went 0 for 8 and 0 for 6 at times but the most important is that the Heat picked up the 112-91 victory clinching the 8th seed. Just one day of rest and the attention turns to how will Miami be able to do this without Jimmy Butler. If there's any coach and team that can figure it out and bring a tough mentality without their star it's Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat.
Next up for the Miami Heat is game one of round one of the playoffs visiting the Boston Celtics.
Written by: Daniel Torres
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