The Miami Heat are 0-1 on the young season after dropping their opening game to the Chicago Bulls, a Bulls team bereft of Zach LaVine and at their own place nonetheless. Sending the folks home upset from the FTX Arena, the Miami Heat were beaten by several things.
One was their own ineptitude on both sides of the floor in the second half and the other was DeMar DeRozan. Seeing themselves go into halftime tied at 59 all, the Miami Heat squandered away opportunities early on to pull away.
They would go up pretty good at points early in the game, only to allow the Bulls to make a comeback of it. But as noted, the second half is where they really fell into pieces and the Bulls swept those pieces away.
The man holding the dustpan was DeMar DeRozan. Scoring 28 of his 37 points in the second half of the game, he wouldn’t be denied and that’s as if the Miami Heat would try that hard at denying him in the first place.
Miami Heat: Summarizing Opening Game Defeat To Bulls With This One Play
With that, here is one play late in the game that really depicts how they were beaten, as a whole, in the second half of play in their season opener.
What you’ll notice in this play from NBA.com is DeRozan being able to dribble the ball, initiate his own look that you know is coming, and get through the entire defense, from top of the key to the rim, all by his lonesome. It’s indicative of how the Miami Heat got beat in that way alone, for starters.
They allowed DeRozan to be Classic DeRozan, driving and getting to his spots at will.
And with the three-point prowess he’s shown in the last season or so, that made matters even worse.
It also speaks towards the Miami Heat and things they need to clean up with what they are actually doing on defense too.
You’ll also notice above that Bam Adebayo does offer some help, but late for some reason and Kyle Lowry never collapses or offers any kind of resistance to the stampeding Chicago Bull that was his former teammate as he punishes Max Strus
Yes, they had covers to make, but you rather them take those tougher looks than DeRozan getting to the cup for an easy one like he does and did here.
Miami Heat: They Have Things To Polish Up On Defensively, But It’s Just Game 1
You hate to think Bam Adebayo is ever confused on defense, being a perennial Defensive Player Of The Year candidate but he was just a tick slow on the help for some reason. And though Bam Adebayo had himself a clunker of a night on offense too, it wasn’t just him on the defensive side of the ball, as noted with Lowry.
There were quite a few more examples of a similar notion taking place. Now, on top of it being an example of what happened to them all second half long, this was one of the dagger buckets secured by DeRozan down the stretch.
It may have been over before this shot, but it definitely felt that way after it went down. The good thing is, again, it’s just game one.
They have things to clean up and you trust that they will. Especially because the things they need to clean up the most are the things that the Miami Heat pride themselves on— effort and defense