MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday night\u2019s 125-118 loss to the Chicago Bulls:<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kind of hard to avoid the elephant not in the room.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Because Kel\u2019el Ware rarely was there on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat second-year center was limited to 3:11 in this one.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Not in a quarter.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Or a half.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But the entire game.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Yes a pair of shaky defensive sequences during that lone stint.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But arguably not nearly as much shaky play as Nikola Jovic.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Who played more.<\/p>\n
\u2013 True the Bulls lacked a true center amid their absences.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Which made the matchup an issue for Ware..<\/p>\n
\u2013 But there is something going on here.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Even if it\u2019s not exactly clear.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Rotation players typically get more of a chance.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Is Ware not even that at the moment?<\/p>\n
\u2013 And now, the Heat won\u2019t be playing the same team again on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Oh, it again will be the Bulls.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But this time, Chicago plans to come to play.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Unlike what they decided would be a day of rest Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u2013 So at least Coby White and Nikola Vucevic back.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Perhaps, but not likely, Josh Giddey, as well.<\/p>\n
\u2013 On Saturday, those three, plus other Bulls rotation components, got the night off.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Welcome to today\u2019s NBA, when playing every night is now viewed as too taxing.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cIt feels like this is what the NBA is,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said pregame. \u201cYou face a team at one point in the year, next time you play them it\u2019ll be likely different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Bulls opened with a lineup of Patrick Williams. Matas Buzelis, Kevin Huerter, Isaac Okoro and Ayo Dosunmu.<\/p>\n
\u2013 No, really.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Bulls coach Billy Donovan was candid about his team\u2019s situation going in.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThere\u2019ll be some lineups out there that will be a little different than I think what we\u2019ve seen in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And yet \u2026 it worked.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Or, more to the point, the Heat couldn\u2019t find a way.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Bulls ended the first quarter with a lineup of\u00a0 Yuki Kawamura, Jevon Carter, Julian Phillips, Dalen Terry, Lachlan Olbrich.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Chicago Bulls, mind you, not the G League Windy City Bulls.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat also were shorthanded, but not for rest or recovery reasons.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Norman Powell (personal reason) out as well as Davion Mitchell (shoulder) and Tyler Herro (ribs), the Heat this time opened with a lineup of Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Pelle Larsson, Kasparas Jakucionis and Myron Gardner.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Of Herro being out with another extended absence, this time a rib issue, Spoelstra said pregame, \u201cThere\u2019s things that sometimes happen for players and the things that you can\u2019t control. The one thing I do know about Tyler, after spending so many years with him, is he has resolve. He has grit. He fights through and focuses on the things that he can control.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra added, \u201cRight now, it\u2019s just getting healthy and then putting in the work to get ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Giddey, White, Vucevic and Jalen Smith getting the night off, among others for the Bulls, it meant going against several unknown quantities for the Heat.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As for patience?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Donovan called a timeout 1:16 in, with his Bulls down 3-0.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaime Jaquez Jr. was first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Followed together by Ware and Simone Fontecchio, with both playing ahead of Nikola Jovic.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jovic and Dru Smith then followed for 10 deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Ware only getting those first-half minutes.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It does not appear Giddey will be available for Sunday\u2019s rematch, either.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThey\u2019re not going to put him back out there until the tightness is gone,\u201d Donovan said of the medical staff\u2019s concern with Giddey\u2019s hamstring. \u201cThey\u2019re going to want to see him ramp up and do some things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Donovan added, \u201cUntil that tightness is completely gone, they\u2019re going to keep holding him out and keep trying to ramp him up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game was the 17th and final in January for the Heat, the most for any month this season and ties for the most games during the month of January in franchise history (2016, 2012, 2010).<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game opened the third of six occurrences this season when the Heat face the same opponent consecutive times, with additional instances remaining against Brooklyn (both at home, March 3 and March 5), Cleveland (both on the road, March 25\u00a0 and March\u00a0 27) and Toronto (both on the road, April 7 and April\u00a0 9).<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game marked the first of a home back-to-back with another game against Chicago on Sunday, the 12th of the Heat\u2019s league-high 17 back-to-back sets.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Additionally, it is the third and final instance with home games on consecutive days this season. The Heat\u00a0 has played home games on consecutive days 44 previous times in franchise history, winning both 14 times, splitting the pair 20 times and dropping both on 10 occasions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday night\u2019s 125-118 loss to the Chicago Bulls: \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574417,"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-574416","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\/115993636106396967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574416","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=574416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}