In the Bulls’ 124-116 victory over the Miami Heat on Thursday night, Coby White scored 26 points, Ayo Dosunmu scored 24 points off the Chicago bench, and the team maintained a commanding lead early on.
For the Bulls, Nikola Vucevic ended with 24 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists. Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan scored 23 points, while White contributed seven rebounds and 11 assists.
The Bulls never trailed after going on a 33-8 run to start the game.
For Miami, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back, Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 22 points. For the Heat, Kevin Love scored 16, Jimmy Butler scored 20, and Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin each scored 17.
The Bulls’ best lead in the first quarter of a game since they led Golden State 35-8 on a jumper by Michael Jordan on January 31, 1997, came from Chicago’s 25-point lead in the first quarter, which was the second-largest such advantage in the NBA this season (Boston led Washington by 26).
Then the attempts at a comeback began. Several of them, actually.
By the end of the first quarter, Miami had cut the lead to fourteen. After Chicago extended their advantage to 24, the Heat mounted another comeback, closing the gap to 60-56 at the half with a 27-7 surge.
The pattern persisted indefinitely. Early in the third, Miami got within three; however, the Bulls went on a run to reclaim the advantage, this time up to 14. With 7:10 remaining, Lowry’s layup pulled the Heat within 105-101, but Chicago soon restored their advantage to 11.
They were back. With 2:46 remaining, Butler hit a free throw to trim the advantage to 113-109. On the subsequent Chicago possession, Dosunmu made a 3-pointer, which proved to be the final gasp for the Heat.
After Alex Caruso made his way back into the Chicago starting lineup, he soon left again due to an injury.
Caruso’s sprained left ankle had kept him out of the Bulls’ last two games. After scoring six points quickly in the first quarter of the game on Thursday, he was mixed up with Vucevic at 4:45 and injured the same ankle. He was declared out of the game for the remainder of it after going into the locker room for assessment.
Miami was again without Josh Richardson (back spasms), Tyler Herro (ankle), Haywood Highsmith (back), and Bam Adebayo (hip). Herro, who has missed 17 straight games, did, however, indicate that he might make a comeback as soon as the Heat’s four-game homestand against Minnesota on Monday.
