Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat disembowel the Bulls on the second night of a back-to-back

The Heat got payback in style against the Chicago Bulls and completed the miniseries at home. It was also the ninth game they’ve played in 13 nights, which included the makeup game from Jan. 8 because of the on-court condensation issue in Chicago.

Coach Erik Spoelstra said, “It was a long week…Guys didn’t make an excuse for it and played with great energy, played the right way and it was great to see. We know what we need to work on.” 

They broke Chicago’s offense in the first quarter and went into the second ahead by 21 thanks to one of Pelle Larsson’s best offensive spurts of his career, discharging 3-pointers and finishing three shots in the restricted area. Then Bam Adebayo took over the next frame, attacking at short, middle and long range. The small ball Chicago ran was no match for him.

The Bulls were desperate to make a dent in the lead, and they kept launching bricks, finishing the first half making 9.5% of shots from 3-point range. The Heat had 32 paint points aside from a 22-point lead at intermission and subsequently wasted them in the third quarter, making the final 12 minutes a formality. The score was so out of hand that Vlad Goldin, one of the team’s two-way contract players who had only logged 54 seconds of action this season on Dec. 19, got seven minutes. 

The Heat won 134-91 and had seven double-digit scorers. Seventy-one of their points came in the lane, which is the third-highest mark of the season.

Adebayo said, “For us, it’s how can we just sustain this type of way we are playing?”

Takeaways: 

• It’s no surprise when a team shows up in top form, as the Heat did, after they’ve been embarrassed. Even Adebayo said at the postgame presser that’s how the team responds. Consider how they were recently abused in the open court to the tune of 36 points, 10 of which belonged to Ayo Dosunmu. He was held in check to 10 points on 33.3% accuracy and only two on the break, one day after lighting up the Heat with drive-bys and deep jumpers. They got some help from Davion Mitchell’s return after a six-game absence. He gave them playmaking and sharp defense.

• The Heat’s power rotation was unstoppable. Adebayo was a man possessed, and Kel’el Ware, who was benched after three minutes on Saturday, finishing with 17 points on 53.3% shooting, with six rebounds. Four of his misses were from deep. Additionally, Adebayo (10) and Ware (14) scored double-digits in the lane, and the only other teammate to match that was Larsson (10). 

• This was the 17th game the team has logged at least 50 rebounds (54) this season. Their record on those nights is 14-3. 

• Norman Powell missed the game, but was named an All-Star reserve. He joins Jamal Murray, Demi Avdija, Jalen Duren, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Johnson in making it for the first time.