It’s maybe Déjà vu all over again for the Bulls and Miami Heat on Friday as they virtually repeat last year’s play-in meeting which the Heat won in 2023 with a fourth quarter rally after the Bulls big win in Toronto thanks to a scoring outburst from Zach LaVine after Miami lost to Atlanta setting up the game in Miami for the final playoff spot.
It would seem the Bulls have the advantage this time even in Miami because the Heat lost star Jimmy Butler to a knee injury in Wednesday’s narrow loss to the Philadelphia 76ers for the No. 7 playoff seed. Miami streak scorer Terry Rozier also is out while it’s a game decision for the Bulls’ Alex Caruso with a sprained ankle.
So these teams know one another.
“We know how physical they play and what they do and both teams are hungry for a spot in the playoffs,” said Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu, who had an impressive game against Atlanta returning from a quad injury. “We know last year we came up short. So one year later to play the same team in the same place, same opportunity. We have to embrace that and go out there and make it happen
“We feel we can compete with anyone and have to do it for 48 minutes,” said Dosunmu. “They have a culture that who ever steps up in his (Butler’s) spot, they are not going to bring what he does because he’s an All Star and a great player in this league. But Miami is one of those teams you play them you know what to expect. They play hard, they play physical, they don’t quit. They keep coming and bringing energy. It’s the Miami Heat; they have a culture.”
Which the Heat famously bluster about, though one has to wonder about it because they are notorious for not taking the regular season seriously with players like Butler and Tyler Herro missing dozens of games, often just to rest. Perhaps they just don’t get in the right rhythm to play. It usually doesn’t seem to bother Butler, who has been a playoff star in his career.
“He’s one of the great competitors of this league,” Caruso said about Butler after Wednesday's game. “He turns this time of the year into his time. So if he can’t go that would be a significant loss because he’s kind of the head of the snake, heartbeat for them. But they still have plenty of talented, capable guys. If he’s out it will change some things we do, but we respect the Miami Heat and what they bring.”
The Bulls are hoping they can begin to duplicate what Miami did last season in turning the play-in win and No. 8 seed into a trip to the NBA Finals.
“The run they went on last year was incredible after our game and throughout the playoffs,” noted Bulls coach Billy Donovan. "So they are a team that’s really battle tested and has been in all sorts of moments. It will be a great challenge on the road. We have an enormous amount of respect for them and we know how good they are. You’ll have to play well there. They do a lot of things really well. At this point it’s a one-game series, so to speak. So there are a lot of things you have to do well.
The reality is loose balls, hustle plays, physicality. If both teams shoot 50 percent you are probably talking about 50 missed shots by both teams and that’s a lot of loose balls. They are good at those things and we will be tested to do a lot of those things at a really high level. And guarding them with the three-point shooting with (Duncan) Robinson and Herro is a lot to prepare for.”
It’s also different teams in a sense since earlier this season when the teams in consecutive games in both November and December, the last game between the teams was four months ago, LaVine and Patrick Williams were playing for the Bulls and Kyle Lowry was starting for Miami.
Though there also is a long history of Miami/Bulls playoff games even with the Heat’s short history as an expansion team starting in the 1988-89 season.
Miami was the first among those expansion teams to make the playoffs in 1992 and in the first round faced the Bulls, who were going for their second title. It was a talkative group of Miami kids with the likes of Glen Rice and Steve Smith, and after losing the first two games, the Heat took a big early lead in Game 3 and some of their young players began to taunt Michael Jordan, who had enjoyed some golf supposedly before the game. They got Jordan’s attention, who then went for 56 points as the Bulls won with a 40-point fourth quarter.
With Pat Riley taking control and getting his tough guy center Alonzo Mourning along with Tim Hardaway, the Heat ran up against the greatest Bulls in the 1996 playoffs and were swept in the first round and then the following season Miami made the conference finals where they lost to the Bulls in five games. The Bulls won the first three 1997 slugfests, err games, in averaging 80 points to win both games. When the Bulls won Game 5 100-87, they were the only team to score 100 points in the series. Miami never scored 90 points in a game. Miami averaged 78 per game in the series.
But then Miami began to dominate, though the Bulls did have a moment.
Miami on the way to their first NBA title adding Shaquille O’Neal beat the Bulls in six games in the first round in 2006. Though the next season the Bulls pulled off one of the great upsets in NBA history with a four-game sweep of the defending champion Heat in the 2007 first round. That was the Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Andres Nocioni young, hustling Bulls team.
Then came the LeBron Heatles era, and there remains the big what if (Derrick Rose had not been hurt) after the Bulls swept Miami during the 2010-11 regular season and then lost 4-1 in the conference finals. After the Bulls fabulous Game 7 first round series win over the Brooklyn Nets in the 2013 playoffs, the Bulls lost to Miami in five games in the next round, the last time the teams met post season until last season’s play-in game.
Here’s a look at the 2023-24 season series in which the teams split 2-2 with each winning at home and on the road and splitting the consecutive game pairs.
Nov. 18: Bulls win in Chicago 102-97 (Record 5-9)
This was the groans game in which the Heat started the game leading 22-1 against a staggering Bulls team that was 4-9 for the season. The Bulls fought back into the game and in what would be a familiar formula for the season DeMar DeRozan scored a dozen of his 23 points in the fourth quarter with a clinching 18 footer with 22 seconds left. “Can’t start games like that,” said Bulls coach Billy Donovan. “I try to give them a little bit of time to talk... it’s listen, ‘We have got to pick up our pace here.’ They’re talking, the talk is constructive. There is positivity in there like, ‘C’mon, let’s go, we’re better than this.’ That kind of stuff. There’s no finger pointing of, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘What are you doing?’ There’s none of that. They are all trying to lift each other up like, ‘C’mon, here.’ It’s great to talk, but we have to go out and do it. I’m glad we were able to overcome it, but it’s certainly a hard way to live doing that.”
Nov. 20: Heat wins in Chicago 118-100 (Record 5-10)
Miami led pretty much from the start and the entire game, and though we didn’t fully realize it then, Zach LaVine was having issues with his foot as he attempted fewer than 10 field goals for the second consecutive game. He shot more than 50 percent in each. But Miami hit the Bulls with 17 threes to 11 for the Bulls, which was a season long issue and one the Bulls hope to counter in Friday’s play-in game. “We’ve got to come out ready to play both ends of the court; that’s pretty much it,” said Coby White, who led the Bulls with a season high 20 points. “Play with force and physicality and that will take care of both ends. Obviously disappointed; nobody wants to be 5-10. But that’s the reality of where we are right now, and we have to figure out how to win games and stack wins together. We’re positive, trying to stick to our identity. It’s not going to be easy, so we’ve got to continue to fight through and stay together and that’s what we’re continuing to do and hopefully something will click.”
Dec. 14: Bulls win in Miami 124-116 (Record 10-16)
Miami had no answers for the speed and aggression of the Bulls kid guards. White and Ayo Dosunmu combined for 50 points and 18 assists without a turnover after Alex Caruso left the game after five minutes with a sprained ankle. Four Bulls scored at least 23 points as eight minutes into the game in Miami the Bulls were leading 33-8. This was the start of trade speculation around the team with the 5-14 start, but also the emergence of White as a Most Improved Player candidate averaging more than 22 points in December. “The ball was moving and we were playing really fast and we were active on the defensive end,” said White. “We were getting open looks (making seven of their first nine threes). It was fun.” It’s the Bulls formula that was successful against Atlanta Wednesday they’ll try to use again to play fast and in transition.
Dec. 16: Heat wins in Miami 118-116 (Record 10-17)
The Bulls came back from 15 points behind, but Jimmy Butler made a 20 footer at the buzzer for the two-point win with Patrick Williams having a career game with 25 points and White with 18 fourth quarter points with four threes in the fourth. But Miami got three late scores from offensive rebounds and survived for the season split. “Down 11 to start the fourth, I give the guys credit for fighting back and taking the lead in the fourth the way they did,” Donovan said. “There is a lot we can take from it, but the blocking out and rebounding was what we can do a better job with. We’ve got to be able to run and go trap (Butler for the game winning shot). It’s hard to get into (it) at that moment in time, (but) if you do go at him with three, four seconds to go on the clock you generally are going to be OK (because) that next guy probably has to shoot it. I look at the last six, seven possessions, the thing that stands out is the rebounding part, the blocking out.”
And then there is Friday.
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