The Miami Heat come out of Saturday night's game with a win over the Chicago Bulls in thrilling fashion, 118-116. As it will for sure become viral on social media, the play of the game was star Jimmy Butler hitting the buzzer-beater game-winning shot to send Chicago packing their bags.
Besides Butler and his game-high 28 points and 11 rebounds, Kevin Love made an impact with 22 points (his Heat high), Caleb Martin was crucial in the second half with 17, and rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 18. There was some milestones as Love achieved his 15,000 career point in the third quarter and Duncan Robinson made his 900th career three-pointer made.
The win puts Miami at 15-11 as they stay home to take on the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference in the Minnesota Timberwolves. Miami will celebrate the win, but they have to bring their A-game Monday.
Here are three takeaways from the Heat's win in the rematch to the Bulls:
A tale of two halves…in the first half for Miami
The goal for the Heat coming into this game was to start fast, setting their own tone and pace. In the last game where Miami faced the Bulls, the latter started by overwhelming the Heat with three-point shooting, propelling them to a 33-8 start.
This time around, it was the opposite. It wasn't a 25-point lead like Thursday night, but it was an explosive 36-point quarter from Miami led by the likes of Kevin Love and Jimmy Butler. Love was unstoppable from deep, shooting a perfect 4-4 from deep in the first quarter.
Butler on the other hand had 11 points and eight of them early in the period. He brought immense intensity and was aggressive in driving to the basket and took advantage of the matchup against Bulls guard Coby White.
While the first quarter was one to applaud for Miami, the second was not. They would enter halftime with a lead, but only by one-point. How did they get here? Pretty simple. They scored 36 points in the first quarter, but only 22 in the second. They shot 60 percent from three in the first, but only 33.3 percent in the second.
But really, it came on the defensive side where they gave Chicago everything they wanted offense. It was clear that the Heat were allowing wide-open shots and the Bulls capitalized as they shot better from the field and the three-point line. What was once a 15-point lead for Miami, it was down to just one by the hands of the opponent in what is once again, an up-and-down first half.
A come back in the third quarter
The start of the third quarter was sluggish for Miami as they could not find anything on offense. The same can be said for Chicago. However, when there was over five minutes left in the period, the Heat turned on the switch and started by going on a 9-0 run. The catalyst to the run was a long pass from Love to Butler for the dunk that could've gave Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill a run for their money.
The run would continue as Miami finally took back the lead and never looked back until the end of the 12 minutes. Miami would go into the fourth quarter with a 11-point lead led by a 23-6 run. Some key trends were that Butler was key scoring 13 in the period and the team as a whole shot nearly 60 percent from the field.
It feels like deja vu, but the Heat enter the fourth quarter with a lead and a chance to close it out.
Who else but Jimmy Butler?
The fourth quarter was an absolutely thrilling 12 minutes that once again might've provided Heat fans with health complicaions. However, that's Miami Heat basketball for you.
The Bulls' final mistake was leaving the game at the hands of Jimmy Butler and they paid the price for it. Nikola Vucevic would try to give Chicago the lead, but the ball rimmed out and the rebound went to Butler.
Matching up against Coby White who he took advantage of that matchup the whole game, he knew what he had to do with the shot clock turned off. He took the ball up the court, faked the drive-in, took a step-back, fired, and it sunk in. The crowd bursted with cheer to the sound of the Heat winning this game.
What happened before might've been more instrumental though. There was about four or five possessions before where there was an offensive rebound, giving the Heat second-chance opportunities to score as they were going back-and-forth with Chicago. If that doesn't happen, who knows if fans get to see the Butler game-winner. Butler would finish the contest with a game-high 28 points.
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