Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 116-113 victory over the Chicago Bulls:<\/p>\n
\u2013 No excuses.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made that clear 90 minutes before the opening tip.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So enough resolve for a needed victory.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Barely.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat not only had to add a pair of back-to-backs to their schedule to accommodate the rescheduling of the Jan. 8 game at the United Center that was postponed by condensation on the court, but then were delayed 90 minutes with their overnight flight after Wednesday night\u2019s home loss to the Magic.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The upshot was a hotel arrival in the 4 a.m. hour for the second time in a week (there also was a delay over the weekend from Salt Lake City to Phoenix).<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra stressed pregame there was no need to complain about the scheduling.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cIt actually made sense,\u201d he said of Thursday as the makeup date. \u201cYou know, we looked at it. There were a couple of other different dates. This one looked like it made the most sense. And it\u2019s fair for both sides. They\u2019re coming off the back-to-back, so are we. So there\u2019s nothing to complain about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra added, \u201cYou know, this is a great life we live, to jump on a chartered flight with a great meal. Yeah, we came in pretty late. There\u2019s a lot of worse things in life. You know, we love what we do. We love the challenge. We love competing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 With the game the first of three in a row against the Bulls, it is the first time the same two teams have faced each other and only each other in a three-game span since Nov. 28-Dec. 1, 1972, when the Baltimore Bullets played the Houston Rockets (with the first first two games on neutral floor in San Antonio).<\/p>\n
\u2013 So ragged and rugged for a pair of teams playing on the second nights of back-to-back sets.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And almost all of a 13-point fourth-quarter lead blown.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But you take it and move on.<\/p>\n
\u2013 To play the Bulls.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And then play the Bulls again.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat improved to 8-3 on the second nights of back-to-back sets, with this concluding one set and then another over the weekend against the Bulls in Miami.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cHopefully it\u2019s just embracing the challenge, not making an excuse for travel and different things,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cI think these are opportunities to really grow and develop some grit during an NBA season.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Davion Mitchell missing his seventh game with a shoulder sprain, the Heat again opened with a lineup of Bam Adebayo, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Pelle Larsson and Kasparas Jakucionis.<\/p>\n
\u2013 That lineup entered 3-2.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It was Larsson\u2019s 26th start.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And he again was a difference-maker, scoring the Heat\u2019s final points.<\/p>\n
\u2013 This time Kel\u2019el Ware was first off the Heat bench, playing ahead of Nikola Jovic.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaime Jaquez Jr. followed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And then Dru Smith, after Jakucionis was called for his second foul midway through the opening period.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Simone Fontecchio making it nine deep, as Jovic waited, before entering as 10th man.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But in the end, it was Jovic with more closing minutes than Ware.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Who only played 12 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra again stressed pregame that pace remains a priority, even with the struggles to match it up with offensive efficiency.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cI would rather have that kind of explosiveness and work on the efficiency,\u201d he said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t do that last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 He then added the now familiar, \u201cProbably like a lot of teams where we are, it\u2019s about consistency. That\u2019s what we\u2019re working on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Heat killer Josh Giddey was out in his return from a hamstring strain, putting his status in question for the two weekend games in the rematches in Miami.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThey want to make sure they can clear the tightness up, because I think they worry about it going from one thing to the next,\u201d Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. \u201cI don\u2019t know his return.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Donovan added. \u201cThere has not been any setback. He didn\u2019t re-strain or anything like that. It\u2019s just a matter of how long it will take for them to remove the tightness, where he can really just play without it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The back-to-back was only the second of the season for the Bulls\u2019 Coby White, with his minutes monitored.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThey\u2019d like us to keep him between 28 to 30 as best we can,\u201d Donovan said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Donovan said Friday\u2019s day off could determine the weekend approaches with Giddey and White.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cI think tomorrow will be an important day,\u201d he said. \u201cOne, to see how Josh responds from treatment and things that he did working out. And then to see how Coby comes out of this game, as well, just to see where those guys are at.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 And, yes, next Thursday\u2019s NBA trading deadline is on the mind of the Bulls, as well.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cI haven\u2019t heard anything in terms of what may or may not happen at the deadline,\u201d Donovan said, \u201cbut I do think that when you look at that situation, a lot of it, it\u2019s got to be a partner and the deal\u2019s got to make sense and you\u2019ve got to feel like it\u2019s benefiting your team. The other team involved wants to make it feel like they\u2019re benefiting their team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 He added, \u201cSometimes deals are hard to come by. You can have a lot of thoughts of what you may or may not want to do, but sometimes you have to have someone that\u2019s going to be a partner with you to be able to do those things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 116-113 victory over the Chicago Bulls: \u2013 No excuses.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,165,295,189,3880,3881,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-571177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-heat","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-miami-heat-blog","14":"tag-miamiheat","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115985343025489499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571177","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=571177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}