Bulls 125, Heat 118: Short-handed Bulls come away with feel-good win

They did it.

They finally beat the Miami Heat.

The Chicago Bulls recently flirted with full health, but that dramatically swung in the other direction. Josh Giddey (hamstring) missed his second-straight game. Coby White (calf) was held out after being listed as questionable for calf injury management. Nikola Vucevic (rest) missed his second game of the season. And Jalen Smith (calf), who left Thursday’s game with calf tightness, remained out. None of this is to mention Tre Jones (calf) and Zach Collins (toe), who have been out for an extended amount of time.

Despite missing so many bodies, the Bulls stuck to their out-efforting style, and with some help from the three-point variance gods (making 20-of-40 three-point attempts), came away with an unlikely win, 125-118.

Matas Buzelis had more offensive responsibility than ever with so many of his teammates out, and showed why he hasn’t been gifted offensive initiation duties to this point in his career. With seven first-half turnovers, eight total, Buzelis seemed overwhelmed.

It was clear that the game was moving quickly for him when on-ball, and given his lack of experience, that’s not a surprise. It might have been the first time Buzelis was able to play through his mistakes, but Billy Donovan had no other choice but to leave him in.

He finished with 21 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-15 shooting, but it was good to see him struggle. The Bulls have kept the training wheels on Buzelis, which has been a good thing for him to understand how to execute in his role. But if the Bulls are in fact going to build around Giddey and Buzelis, they need to start to see if Buzelis can do more than just the role player things.

The Bulls are now 24-25 and have jumped into the ninth seed.

Tune into the CHGO Bulls postgame live: 

Up next: The mini-series against Miami wraps up on Sunday.

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Ayo Dosunmu (29 points, eight rebounds, nine assists on 11-of-16 shooting) was sensational for the Bulls in the fourth quarter, helping drive the win with 10-straight points late. Among the many areas in which he has improved his game, one of his best traits is beating the defense up the court, even after made baskets. 

Donovan has been outspoken all year about the Bulls not having strong individual shot creators in the half-court and sharp in finding ways to compensate for that. Making quick decisions, screening and re-screening, moving away from the ball all help, but if the Bulls can create more transition opportunities, they’ll have even easier times scoring without having to individually break down defenders. 

“We call it answer backs, trying to just get the ball out quick,” Dosunmu said. “It can be tiring going back and forth, back and forth. So I try to use my speed. We’ve got a 24-second shot clock. If I get it out fast, I can get it up the court (with) 18, 19, now we’re playing to our strengths.”

It’s not just Dosunmu — both Dalen Terry and Coby White got the ball up quickly following highlight dunks from Bam Adebayo in Thursday’s game and drew fouls.

“Coach Donovan really harps on that a lot, getting the ball out fast,” he said .”No matter what kind of play. If it’s a highlight play. Don’t be demoralized because the game is happening fast. Swings happen fast.”

Despite that being an emphasis, the Bulls are ninth in the NBA when it comes to average time to a shot following a made basket. They could stand to improve their offense even more if they can make that a more consistent part of their attack.

— Will Gottlieb

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Nothing like a G League-esque Bulls-Heat game to cap off a Chicago January that felt like four months instead of one. That…was a tough watch. Credit to the extremely short-handed Bulls for putting up a decent fight. Credit also to the Heat for treating this game like the joke that it was and letting the Bulls hang around.

After he nearly pulled off a one-man comeback against Miami on Thursday — scoring 14 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter — Dosunmu exploded again tonight. This time, in the form of a 13-point third quarter that flipped the halftime script from a seven-point deficit to a seven-point lead. He keeps attacking the rim and knocking down threes at a relentless pace. Is that a high-value trade piece with the deadline less than a week away, or a piece Arturas Karnisovas wants to sign to a new contract this summer? We’ll find out soon…

We got our first Yuki Kawamura minutes of the season! Given the absences of Jones, Giddey and White, this felt destined to happen. He had a great no-look dish to Kevin Huerter for an and-one, and knocked down a couple of threes. His fourth-quarter minutes were legitimately impactful. He won a freaking jump ball! Mostly, I’m just thrilled for him that he’s able to be out there playing after his medical scare earlier this season.

Matas…buddy. EIGHT turnovers? Woof. Credit to him for trying to create more with the Bulls missing all of their guards. But it didn’t go well. On to the next. …Way to convert that dunk and three-pointer in the final clutch minutes though. The kid has never lacked confidence.

— Matt Peck

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Royal Rumble happened today. I’ll get into that later.

Bulls played pretty well despite not having a lot of their starters. It showed how they are always fighting, scratching and clawing in every game. They truly never give up. Peace to John Cena. 

Buzelis had a ton of turnovers and it was expected. I thought he should have been handling the ball early on in the season to work through this kind of thing. But regardless of when he got them, 7+ turnovers is never good. 

Patrick Lee Williams is still Ass. Played better but still.

It was good to see Yuki get some time on the floor. He looked happy to be out there and had a great assist to Kevin Huerter for a layup. Hope he gets more playing time. 

Dosunmu is just ridiculous. He’s been the best player on the team these past two games. He’s carried the Bulls. He’s great and I hope he stays forever.

Royal Rumble was cool. Matches were good but the ending was predictable. Peace to Oba Femi, Lash Legend and Sol Ruca.

— Big Dave

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