Takeaways From The Miami Heat’s Friday Victory Against The Chicago Bulls

The Miami Heat advanced to the playoffs for a fourth straight year after their victory against the Chicago Bulls

The game started to get away from them in the third quarter but the Miami Heat outscored the Chicago Bulls 35-23 in the fourth to capture the victory. The win placed them at the No. 8 seed while knocking the Bulls out of playoff contention. The Heat play the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, starting Sunday.

Here are some major takeaways from the game:

-Max Strus put the Heat on his back in the first half. He scored 23 points while hitting six 3-pointers. It was the most he scored in any half in his career. He finished with 31 points which is also the most he recorded since Nov. 12.

-Hours after making the Clutch Player of the Year finalist list, Jimmy Butler scored 13 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter. The Bulls knew to send double-teams to him but he wasn’t fazed as he missed just three shots.

-Kyle Lowry didn’t live up to the hype surrounding his matchup with DeMar DeRozan. While DeRozan finished with 26 points, Lowry scored five in the 19 minutes he played off the bench. It could be due to issues he had with his knee injury in the second half.

-Bam Adebayo had one of the worst offensive performances this season. He scored eight points on 11 percent shooting, the lowest percentage since Jan. 15, 2019. But he did record 17 rebounds, the most since Feb. 11.

-Another Heat player who had an embarrassing performance was Tyler Herro. After scoring 26 points against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, he recorded 12 while missing all five of his 3-pointers.

-The Heat did a solid job defending the 3-point line. The Bulls, who shot 36 percent in the season, were limited to just 28 percent. The only 3-pointers came from Coby White and Alex Caruso.

Cory Nelson is a contributor to Inside The Heat. He attended Northern Virginia Community College. He can be reached at corymckenzienelson@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @CKenzyNelson. You can also check out his personal blog HERE.