Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 114-109 loss to the Chicago Bulls (26-38) on Saturday at Kaseya Center to complete the back-to-back set at home and fall to 0-2 on its five-game homestand. The Heat (29-34) continues the homestand on Monday against the Charlotte Hornets:
The Heat’s nightmare stretch continues, blowing another big lead in an ugly loss to an injury-depleted Bulls team.
The Heat entered Saturday having blown a fourth-quarter lead in six of its last seven losses.
The Heat also entered Saturday having blown a double-digit lead in 15 losses this season. That’s the second-most such collapses in the NBA this season behind only the Utah Jazz.
It happened again, as the Bulls rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit and an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to hand the Heat its third straight loss.
After the Heat began the fourth quarter ahead by 11, the Bulls opened the fourth quarter on a 19-5 run to take their first lead since early in the game and pull ahead by three with 5:52 to play.
The two teams then traded baskets before the Heat bounced back to regain a three-point lead with 2:47 left in the fourth quarter.
But the Bulls closed the game on a 12-4 run to turn that three-point deficit into a five-point win.
Chicago dominated the Heat 36-20 in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback, as Miami shot just 9 of 23 (39.1 percent) from the field and 1 of 11 (9.1 percent) on threes in the final period.
Meanwhile, Tre Jones (13 points) and Coby White (10 points) combined to score 23 points in the fourth quarter to spark the Bulls’ rally.
This latest collapse was a result of the Heat allowing the Bulls to hang around throughout the first three quarters.
The Heat led by as many as 17 points in the first half, but entered halftime ahead by just seven points after scoring only four points over the final 7:13 of the fist half.
The Bulls then made two quick threes to score the first six points of the second half, cutting the deficit to just one. That forced Heat coach Erik Spoelstra to call a timeout just 42 seconds into the third quarter.
The Heat then pushed its lead back up to 11 points a few minutes later before the Bulls again responded to pull within two points with 3:47 remaining in the third quarter. But the Heat closed the period on an 11-2 run to enter the fourth quarter with an 11-point advantage.
Bam Adebayo (22 points), Andrew Wiggins (22 points) and Tyler Herro (21 points) each scored over 20 points for the Heat in the loss.
Heat starters Kel’el Ware and Wiggins returned from injuries and were productive for stretches in their first game back.
Ware finished Saturday’s loss with seven points, 12 rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 26 minutes after missing the previous three games because of a left knee sprain.
Wiggins closed Saturday’s defeat with 22 points, three rebounds, one assist and one block in 28 minutes after sitting out the last five games because of a right ankle sprain.
With the Heat moving closer to full health, it was able to use its preferred post-trade starting lineup on Saturday for the first time in nearly two weeks.
The return of Ware and Wiggins allowed the Heat to get back to its preferred starting group of Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Wiggins, Bam Adebayo and Ware on Saturday for the first time since using this group to begin its Feb. 26 home win over the Atlanta Hawks.
It marked the sixth time that the Heat has used this starting lineup this season, falling to 2-4 in those games on Saturday.
The Heat’s preferred starting lineup opened Saturday’s game strong, starting the contest on a 21-15 run before Miami made its first substitution of the night with 4:37 left in the first quarter.
The Heat’s starters then outscored the Bulls by three points during the first 6:17 of the second half before Miami turned to its bench.
The return of this starting lineup provided some stability to the rotation after the Heat used a different starting group in each of the previous five games because of the team’s injury issues.
With the Heat getting two starters back from injury, some players who had been playing during this injury-filled stretch fell out of the rotation on Saturday.
The Heat used Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson, Terry Rozier and Jaime Jaquez Jr. to complete it’s nine-man rotation against the Bulls.
Rozier was a bright spot for the Heat amid a frustrating night, snapping out of a rough season-long shooting slump on Saturday — at least for one game. Rozier finished the loss with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range in 27 minutes.
That left Kyle Anderson, Pelle Larsson, Kevin Love, Keshad Johnson and Isaiah Stevens out of the Heat’s rotation on Saturday despite all of them being available to play.
Anderson had played in 10 straight games prior to Saturday’s DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision).
Larsson and Love had each played in three straight games before receiving a DNP-CD on Saturday.
The only Heat players unavailable for Saturday’s game were Alec Burks (lower back pain), Josh Christopher (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand) and Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery).
The Bulls were without Ayo Dosunmu (left shoulder surgery), Lonzo Ball (right wrist sprain), Nikola Vucevic (right calf strain) and Patrick Williams (right quadricep tendon tendinosis) against the Heat.
Saturday’s game could be a preview of next month’s NBA play-in tournament.
Not only have the Heat and Bulls faced off in the play-in tournament in each of the last two seasons, but they are again on track to be part of the play-in tourney this season.
According to Basketball Reference’s playoff probabilities report, the Heat entered Saturday with just a 6.3 percent chance of finishing with a top-six seed in the East to make the playoffs without needing to take part in the play-in tournament. Basketball Reference’s modeling has the Heat’s most likely regular-season finish listed at 48.3 percent for seventh place in the East.
Meanwhile, Basketball Reference’s playoff probabilities report has the Bulls with a 29.1 percent chance of falling out of the NBA’s play-in tournament. Basketball Reference’s modeling gives the Bulls a 60.7 percent chance of making the play-in tourney as the East’s 10th-place team.
How is the play-in tournament structured?
The seventh-place team in each conference hosts the eighth-place team in a play-in game during the week of April 14. The winner of this matchup earns the seventh playoff seed.
The ninth-place team in each conference hosts the 10th-place team in another play-in game that week. The loser of this matchup is eliminated from playoff contention, while the winner of this matchup goes on the road to take on the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game later that week for the right to the eighth playoff seed.
The Heat has ended the Bulls’ season in that second play-in game for the East’s No. 8 playoff seed in each of the last two seasons.
The Heat has just 19 regular season games left to play. The Bulls have 18 games left on their regular-season schedule.
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.