Bulls have chance to continue Miami’s misery
Next up in this unpredictable NBA season, the Bulls get a chance to kick the Miami Heat while it’s down.
The power trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have been through plenty of ups and downs during the season of aligned stars. But no crevice has been quite as deep as what’s happened over the past week.
The Heat started with a home loss to New York. On Thursday, Miami squandered a 24-point third-quarter lead and lost at home to Orlando.
Facing a tough bounce-back game at San Antonio on Friday, the Heat fell behind 36-12 in the first quarter and lost by 30.
On the bright side, the weather in South Beach is still better during basketball season than Cleveland or Toronto.
“We’ve been through losing before, so it’s not anything new,” Wade said after the loss to the Spurs, according to espn.com. “In this league, you can turn it around fast or you can stay in it for awhile.”
So now the Bulls become the bounce-back opponent for the Heat this afternoon in a nationally televised game (noon, ABC7) at American Airlines Arena.
The Bulls (42-18) have already clinched the season series against Miami, since they’re 2-0 and this is the last meeting. The game is significant, though, because the Bulls could move two games ahead of the Heat (43-19) in the loss column for second place in the Eastern Conference.
Regular-season results will mean nothing if these teams match up in the playoffs. But the Bulls would obviously prefer to have homecourt advantage in that scenario.
Miami coach Eric Spoelstra made sure to mention his team is still playing to win a championship after the ugly loss in San Antonio.
“We’re trying to fast-track this right now,” he said. “We don’t want to hear anything about it is not going to happen this year or that it takes a long time for championship games to get built, go through the battles.
“We went through some abnormal adversity early on, a lot of it created from the media, which was good. It banded us together. Now we’re going through a tough stretch. ... Things can change quickly in this league as long as you stay the course and don’t let it turn into something bigger than it is.”
The Bulls bounced back from a disappointing loss in Atlanta on Wednesday to beat Orlando 89-81 on Friday. They led the Hawks by 19 late in the second quarter, but let it get away. Against the Magic, the Bulls went ahead by 16 early in the third and never let the lead get smaller than 5 points.
Derrick Rose led the way with 24 points, while the Bulls got important contributions from reserves Omer Asik (13 rebounds), Kyle Korver (3 late 3-pointers), Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Watson.
“Our bench has been playing great for us,” Joakim Noah said after the game, according to CSNChicago.com. “I feel like we just come in waves. We’ve just got to keep it up, keep improving and not be satisfied with this win. But this was definitely a huge win.”
Bulls newcomer Rasual Butler was inactive for the Orlando game and will have to wait for an opportunity to open up.
“Our rotation is not going to change really unless there is injury,” coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters in Orlando. “He has to learn the offense and defense. He has been around and knows the league, which is a big advantage. I think he’ll get it quickly.”