{"id":123647,"date":"2025-06-25T13:47:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T13:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/123647\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T13:47:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T13:47:19","slug":"can-the-chicago-bulls-beat-the-miami-heat-in-a-play-in-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/123647\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat in a play-in game?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the last two years, the Chicago Bulls have been haunted by the Miami Heat.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t matter what happened in the regular season<\/a>. The end of the year played out to the same script \u2014 the Bulls traveled to Miami for their second game of the play-in tournament and finished their season in disappointment.<\/p>\n

The first year, it seemed almost impossible. The Bulls led until the final 2 minutes and 29 seconds of the game. It took a gargantuan 31-point effort from Jimmy Butler \u2014 plus 7-for-12 3-point shot-making from Max Strus \u2014 to muscle the Bulls out of the building in a late-game collapse.<\/p>\n

Last spring<\/a>, the loss felt more fated. Butler wasn\u2019t healthy. The Heat didn\u2019t care. Tyler Herro and then-rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. combined for 45 points as the Heat took a 20-point lead in the first half and never looked back. Coming out of the locker room at halftime was a performative necessity \u2014 the game was lost in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n

Those games were entirely different. But guard Coby White drew one throughline between the two outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like Miami \u2014 the last two years we played him in the play-in \u2014 they physically dominated us,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n

This is the key to the Miami ethos. \u201cHeat Culture\u201d might have lost a bit of its weight this season as the team struggled to navigate the messy departure of Butler, who is now attempting to lead the Golden State Warriors into the playoffs after a deadline trade.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t shake the Heat\u2019s dogged intent in the postseason. Coach Billy Donovan praised the way the Heat have preserved a central culture in the program regardless of personnel or record.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan (11) fends off Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler (22) while under pressure from Heat guard Max Strus (31) during the second half of an NBA basketball play-in tournament game, Friday, April 14, 2023, in Miami. (AP Photo\/Rebecca Blackwell)<\/p>\n

\u201cWith them, it\u2019s only about one thing. And that\u2019s winning,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make a difference what their roster is, what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s all about winning. From an organizational standpoint, it\u2019s only and purely and everybody knows \u2014 it\u2019s just straight up about winning. It\u2019s not about years later in the draft. They\u2019re worried about what\u2019s in front of them now. And I really respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulls flipped the dynamic on the Heat this year, winning all three of their regular-season matchups. Their final matchup of the regular season<\/a> took place exactly one week before Wednesday\u2019s play-in game, a rare preview of the postseason.<\/p>\n

Those three games provided a fairly simple blueprint for success in the play-in tournament. The Bulls will try to play fast. The Heat will try to slow them down. And whichever team wins that dynamic will also win the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur identity is up and down \u2014 and it\u2019s not a secret,\u201d guard Josh Giddey said. \u201cEveryone knows the way we play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Heat offer a variety of options to slow an opponent down. Their size is advantageous for gumming up the game in the paint. Despite a sub-.500 record this season, Miami still averages 8.1 steals per game as one of the stronger defensive teams in the Eastern Conference. This disruptiveness \u2014 paired with a desire to fuel their offense in the half-court \u2014 is the antithesis to the Bulls\u2019 success as a team that wins on the run.<\/p>\n

For the Bulls, the game plan for cracking open this defense relies on balancing frenetic pace with mistake-free execution \u2014 push outlet passes, keep the ball moving, limit turnovers and don\u2019t foul.<\/p>\n

\"MiamiMiami Heat forward Kevin Love (42) drives to the basket against Chicago Bulls center Andre Drummond (3) during the first half of an NBA basketball play-in tournament game, Friday, April 19, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo\/Wilfredo Lee)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it comes down to is a lot of loose balls,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cOnes that are on the floor, ones that are up in the air, the ability to take charges, the ability to physically make plays without fouling and putting people to the free throw line. It comes down to a lot of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after three consecutive wins in the regular season, the Bulls aren\u2019t taking their opponent lightly. It\u2019s a practicality \u2014 the Heat are too consistently dangerous in the postseason to ever earn casual treatment in an elimination game.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also a matter of pride. Two consecutive play-in tournament losses can be chalked up to a fluke or an aberration. But three in a row? That\u2019s a pattern the Bulls don\u2019t want to fall into.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand this is a brand new game,\u201d Giddey said. \u201cWhat\u2019s happened in the past is done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the last two years, the Chicago Bulls have been haunted by the Miami Heat. It didn\u2019t matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,3363,329,144,295,189,3881,6,446,5637,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-123647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-billy-donovan","10":"tag-chicago-bulls","11":"tag-heat","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-heat","14":"tag-miamiheat","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-basketball","17":"tag-play-in-tournament","18":"tag-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114744317984430637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}