Heat Blows 20 Point Lead Against Bulls

Photo by Quinn Harris, Getty Images

The Miami Heat went on the road to the windy city to take on the bulls and early on, it looked like they would take care of business as expected. The heat opened up a 20 point first quarter lead with a score of 22-1. Yes, 1. Most fans seeing a score like this early on would usually turn the game off, expecting this to be a blowout. But one thing about sports especially the NBA, no lead is safe until the game is officially over. The Chicago Bulls pull off a resounding comeback and ultimately beat Miami 102-97.

Miami’s superstars, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, played well with both scoring over 20 points, but there were only 3 players on the Heat playing rotation in total that scored over 10 points against the bulls. Meanwhile, the Bulls had 5 players scoring 10 or more points against the Heat’s defense. Bulls forward, Demar Derozan, led the way for the Bulls by putting up 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. It may not be career high numbers for Derozan but it was enough to pull off a comeback win against a heat team that made a finals appearance just last year.

The Heat are still 8-5 and there are lots of games to be in the win column this year, but if they want to be able to compete for a championship, they can’t afford to blow leads and ultimately lose. Especially when they’ll face teams within their conference that some would say have a better chance of getting to the finals than the Heat. Games like this happen every once in a while, and it’s expected Miami will bounce back. But they can’t make it a habit moving forward if they want to compete for a championship.