Miami Heat struggle at home and lose to the Chicago Bulls

After a very promising 4-0 road trip, the Miami Heat struggle on both ends of the floor and find themselves back at .500 with their 113-103 loss to the Chicago Bulls at home. They were without Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin, but against a struggling Bulls team you would expect that with Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro this team would have enough to pull out the victory.

Things were actually looking pretty great at halftime with the Heat up 57-52. Bam was playing out of his mind and his game just continues to evolve in front of our eyes. His work in the close to mid range area has seen the biggest improvements and it has gotten to a point where I expect him to make the bucket, whether it is contested or not. He finished this game with a strong 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting, 12 rebounds and six assists. It just wasn't enough as every one else outside of Herro and Haywood Highsmith(!) was inefficient tonight.

Which leads us into my first negative of the night, Miami's three point shooting continues to be the biggest mystery of the season. This was one of the best three point shooting teams in the league last season and now they can't get shooting from anyone outside of Herro, who is shooting 41.2% on 8.1 attempts a night. Max Strus is the biggest concern as his shooting struggles have been a problem for an extended stretch and it's now starting to affect the parts of his game that made him stand out. In his last nine games, he is shooting 25.4% on 7.0 three point attempts a night. Not like 36.4% on 8.7 attempts in his first 20 games was anything spectacular, but he just can't hit anything right now and the offense just can't afford that. Duncan Robinson has given the offense a bit of a jolt, but he still misses the occasional wide open corner three when the Heat need it most and fouls too often on the defensive end. Miami needs the shooting to turn around at some point for this team to have any chance at a championship.

The defense was very poor today as well as they allowed Chicago to get comfortable early with 31 first quarter points. This Bulls team has been atrocious on the offensive end in the month of December and the Heat made them look like a well oiled machine for most of this game. A lot of that can be attributed to Nikola Vucevic having another incredible night to dot down in his career against Miami as he finished with a game-high 29 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and one steal. To do that against a defensive beast like Bam is extremely impressive, but he also took advantage of multiple mismatches he found himself in due to poor rotations from Miami. It was a constant issue and one that never truly got resolved in this game. Demar DeRozan was also in his bag in this game as he scored 24 points, five rebound and five assists. He hit multiple tough fourth quarter buckets that kept this game out of reach for the Heat. Can't forget about Zach Lavine either who had 21 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Worst part about these three stars going off on Miami is the fact that they did it on a combined 29-of-44 (65.9%) shooting from the field.

Let's not end this on a sour note, as we also got a strong night from Tyler Herro and it came on another tough shooting night for him. He couldn't get his shot to fall early starting 0-of-4 from the field in the first quarter, but his playmaking was on display from the start and he eventually finished with 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting, seven assists, three rebounds and two steals. Being able to impact the games in other ways when his shot isn't falling has been a huge development for Tyler this season. The only other positive I can mention in this game was the performance from Haywood Highsmith. He scored 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field including a perfect 4-of-4 from deep to go with two rebounds, two assists and four steals. Loved his activity on both ends in this one and when his shot is falling like this he's a perfect candidate to take that four spot next to Bam.

The Miami Heat will now look to bounce back from this performance on Friday December 23rd against the Indiana Pacers. They defeated the Pacers in their most recent road trip and with the extended rest the hope is that Butler, Lowry and Martin will be available and give the Heat the reinforcements they need.