Bulls Too Much For Short-Handed Heat

There must be something in the ocean waters off of South Beach that have cause Miami’s sports teams to suffer second half setbacks, as the Heat and Dolphins tend to fall apart after halftime.

The Chicago Bulls were the latest team to feast on the depleted Heat, winning their conference best eleventh game on the road, as they cruised to a 93-75 win at the American Airlines Arena. The Bulls were carried by the hot shooting of Mike Dunleavy (22 points), while Jimmy Butler continues his stellar start to the season, scoring 17 points, and Taj Gibson chipped in 15 points. Aaron Brooks sparked a rally in the first half, scoring 8 consecutive points on his own to give the Bulls a lead they would not relinquish.

The Heat were led by Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng, making his first appearance as a member of the Heat against his former team, who both had 17 points. Norris Cole and Justin Hamilton, who got another start in the place of Chris Bosh, finished each with 10 points. The Heat were also missing Josh McRoberts, so Udonis Haslem filled in for him. He was in early foul trouble and only ended up playing three minutes.

Things that pleased me: The Heat had more points in the paint (34-30), offensive rebounds (13-8), points off the bench (21-16), and less turnovers (19-13) than the Bulls.

Things that annoyed me:  So naturally, they lost by 18 points.

The Heat shot 35% from the field, as they couldn’t get anything going on offense. Compounding matters was that Miami shot 4 for 22 from downtown. And when you can’t make baskets against the Bulls defense, any lead looks like a mountain to climb. Bosh’s absence didn’t help matters, but the Heat just don’t have enough to play with the league’s favorites when they’re relying on hitting shots from distance.

On defense, it was the same story: teams can bomb away from behind the arc and the Heat will have no answer for it. The Bulls shot 50% (9 for 18) from long distance – a 14% improvement on their season average – and were getting all the opportunities to hit them, as the Heat continue to be late on rotations. Miami’s opponents have been able to slice their defense to pieces, as the Heat have the fourth worse field goal percentage, and seventh worst three-point field goal percentage, and these trends don’t seem like they’re going to change course anytime soon.

Things that perplexed me: The Bulls were without Joakim Noah, and Derrick Rose was held to 14 points, yet the Heat were beaten down by Dunleavy. He scored 19 of his 22 points in the third quarter, outscoring the Heat (16 points) all by himself. In a season where the Heat have played Blake Griffin, Carmelo Anthony, and Steph Curry, it was Dunleavy who scored the most points on them in any given quarter. He hit 3 of his 4 three-pointers in the third, as the Heat had no answer for him. Because if you can’t stop Mike Dunleavy, you are in for a long night.

Scale of 1 to 10, how bad did I want to throw a lamp because of Mario Chalmers?: 4. Much like the rest of the Heat, Chalmers had an off night. He was 4 for 12 for 11 points off the bench. He was able to snag four steals to help things on defense. But on a night where the Heat were missing Bosh and McRoberts, there was instances where Chalmers was the best player on the court for them. That’s usually not a good thing.

What we’ve learned: The Heat are snake bitten right now, as they are forced to shuffle different players in and out of the lineup because injuries and illness continue to ravage the squad. They’ve also just sent a key rotation player (Shabazz Napier) down to the D-League because clearly the Heat need more athleticism or something, and that is something young players can’t provide. Whatever.

But their defense continues to be their Achilles’ heel, which is such an odd thing for me to write, as the Heat have always been built as a defense-first team. Maybe it’s the fact that they have yet to build any continuity with so many guys missing time. Or maybe the players they do have just don’t fit the system that Miami likes to run on defense. If that’s the case, we’re hours away from when the bulk of the Heat roster being eligible for trades, so maybe a move or two could shake things up.

The battered Heat won’t get much time to heal up, as they go up to Brooklyn on Tuesday for a game against the Nets.