The Miami Heat pummeled the Chicago Bulls, 112-91, in their Play-In tournament finale to eliminate Chicago from postseason contention and secure a playoff matchup against the top-seeded Boston Celtics in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Heat entered the fourth quarter with a 22-point lead and never relinquished it thanks in part to coach Erik Spoelstra’s defensive scheme and Tyler Herro’s explosive play.
Herro paced the Heat with 24 points, adding 10 rebounds and nine assists. Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 21 points and Kevin Love had 16.
The Heat held a commanding 17-point lead at the end of the first quarter before claiming their biggest first-half lead, 42-22, on a Duncan Robinson 3 with roughly eight minutes to go in the half. Chicago then stopped the bleeding, going on a nine-point run to come within 11. Trades of buckets made it a 10-point game entering the third quarter.
The second half looked as though it’d continue as a game of mini runs, but the Bulls never made a threatening enough push. A Herro behind-the-back assist to Caleb Martin for a 21-foot sunken basket gave Miami a 13-point pad with roughly four minutes left in the third quarter and sent the crowd into uproar.
Shortly after, the Bulls went on a 12-point run.
TYLER BEHIND THE BACK PASS TO A CALEB 3 👀 pic.twitter.com/ppM6eOrbUI
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) April 20, 2024
DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls scoring with 22 points and Nikola Vucevic added 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Jimmy Butler was notably absent for the Heat after he sprained his MCL in his right knee during Wednesday’s 105-104 road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. He is expected to miss multiple weeks, league sources said.
On the opening day of the Play-In tournament Wednesday, the ninth-seeded Bulls beat the 10th-seeded Atlanta Hawks 131-116 to advance to the final Play-In game. The eighth-seeded Heat lost to the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers, who secured the spot to face the second-seeded New York Knicks in the first round.
The Heat’s first-round series against the Celtics begins Sunday.
Miami’s defensive gameplan
Without Butler and Terry Rozier (neck injury), Miami’s most obvious problem coming into the game seemed to be their offense. Instead of worrying about that, coach Spoelstra drew up a wonderful defensive plan that helped the offense along. Instead of putting him on a big man, Spoelstra put star center Bam Adebayo on DeMar DeRozan, taking the Bulls out of their preferred attack. Through solid rebounding and some self-inflicted Chicago errors, Miami was able to get all the offense they needed in transition or through mismatches. Herro provided offensive explosiveness when necessary, but Spoelstra made it so the Bulls couldn’t get out of their own way. — Eric Koreen, NBA staff writer
How tough are the Celtics to beat?
It is one thing to beat the Bulls, a 39-win team in the regular season, in one game at home. It would be quite another to topple the Celtics in a seven-game series without Butler. Miami has knocked Boston out in two of the past four playoffs and gone seven games with the Celtics in another recent series in 2022, but that was with Butler playing a starring role.
The Celtics won 64 games this year, nine more than any other team, and 18 more than the Heat. They had the second-ranked defense in the regular season, which will test Miami’s half-court weakness. This feels very much like a traditional 1-8 series heading into Sunday’s Game 1. — Koreen
Required reading
(Photo: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
