The Miami Heat came into Monday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls fresh off of a near-catastrophic defeat to this same Chicago team on Saturday night. In that game, the Miami Heat led by 20 points or so for some time throughout the contest.
They maintained that led heading into the fourth period. As they progressed through that quarter though, the Bulls made their move.
Lead by Coby White and their outside shooting, the Bulls were able to close the gap and make it a game again for Miami. At the end of it all, the Heat would win but not because the Chicago Bulls made it easy on them.
With that game in mind though, it would have been easy to see how the Miami Heat could come into Monday night’s game with a leg up or a bit more motivated after how the last game went down. It wasn’t quite that way though.
The Miami Heat played with fire for a second time in a row against the Chicago Bulls and on Monday, they were burned.
The Miami Heat were met with a bit more opposition on Monday as compared to Saturday’s contest. Nikola Vucevic, across his time against the Heat with the Orlando Magic, was always that driving and stabilizing force that allowed his team to hang around, based on and centered off of his ability to have his way.
Though this isn’t just an against the Heat thing, it was only against the Heat where you were always guaranteed a tough game against Orlando and Vooch. Again though, this phenomenon wasn’t present on Saturday for the Bulls.
It was very present on Monday. Though he really didn’t do a ton in the second half, what he was able to do in the first half not only set the tone, but kept them squarely in the game.
The Miami Heat still maintained control though and just wouldn’t put their feet on the necks of the Bulls to close it. This is, sort of, what was allowed to happen on Saturday, except then, the Miami Heat were able to close it.
They were not on Monday. They allowed Chicago to stick around this time, as opposed to coming back and though they are pretty much equal as far as execution stands, results wise, they were defeated here.
It’s not good that they gave up the lead in Saturday’s game but they won, where they didn’t on Monday. Either way though and as mentioned, neither is good.
That’s why the Miami Heat can’t keep playing with fire. Because everyone knows that when you play with fire… you get burned.