Miami Heats Up Late
The Miami Heat ended the game on 15-1 run to pull out a 102-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls in a play-in game. The Heat will advance to the NBA playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, where they will face the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Heat’s Max Strus tied for game-high scoring honors with 31 points. Strus shot 8-16 from the field — including 7-12 from 3-point range — and made all eight of his free throws. Strus tied Devin Vassell (April 13, 2022) and Fred VanVleet (April 12, 2023) for the most 3-pointers made in a play-in game.
Jimmy Butler also scored 31 points for the Heat. Butler shot just 11-24 from the field, but hit nine of his 10 free throw attempts. Butler scored 13 of his points in the fourth quarter, including a layup with 2:17 remaining that gave the Heat a lead they would never relinquish.
Heat center Bam Adebayo struggled from the field, missing eight of his nine attempts. However, Adebayo hauled in a game-high 17 rebounds and held the Bulls’ Nikola Vucevic to just 12 points.
The Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan scored a team-high 26 points in the loss, shooting 9-19 from the field and 8-9 from the free throw line. DeRozan also dished out a game-high nine assists.
Teammate Zach LaVine had a tough night, making just six of his 21 attempts from the field (including 0-6 from 3-point range). LaVine also committed a game-high five turnovers.
