Bulls blow must-win Play-In game to Heat: 'It shouldn't have ended ...

MIAMI — When it ended, when the final buzzer sounded, finally bringing a merciful end to this maddeningly inconsistent season, the Chicago Bulls immediately looked back with regret.

“We were getting better as a group since the All-Star break,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said following Chicago’s season-ending 102-91 loss at Miami in the Play-In Tournament. “It would have been nice to be able to see if we could have found a way to win tonight and continued on into the playoffs. But it didn’t happen.”

It could have, and on this night, in a one-game, winner-move-on scenario, even should have. But the Bulls got sent home Friday because, much like their rocky regular season, they couldn’t properly close out a game.

Chicago held a six-point lead with 7 minutes, 18 seconds remaining. At that moment, it felt like the Bulls would do the improbable: secure two consecutive road wins to earn the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed and a first-round rematch with the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. With 6:19 to play, their lead was five points, then three with 3:47 showing.

Everything the Bulls set out to erase, all their blown 20-point leads, every one of their unacceptable losses to lesser teams, was fading into the rearview. All they needed to do was finish the final three minutes.

“We gave ourselves a chance,” an emotional Patrick Williams said. “Regardless of how the season started or what we went through, ebbs and flows of the season, we gave ourselves a chance. We came together when it mattered most. I think we showed up when it mattered most as well.

“We were really optimistic about the win we got in Toronto after coming back like that. It showed grit. It showed toughness. Today, we didn’t back down. It’s always tough to have a hard-fought battle and a couple of days later you’ve got another one. I think we showed up and we fought. The ball didn’t bounce the right way for us.”

More accurately, the Bulls couldn’t put the ball in the hole.

Miami ended the game on a 15-1 run in the final 3:47. Chicago missed its final eight shots.

“It shouldn’t have ended like that,” DeMar DeRozan said. “We gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game. We were up. We just can’t make the mistakes that we made, especially in a game like this. We’re sitting in our reality now with nothing to do.”

The misses were understandable. They happen and have for the Bulls far too frequently this season. Coby White missed a 3 after making four of his first five, including the go-ahead 3 that marked the Bulls’ final field goal. DeRozan missed a patented, midrange pull-up. White couldn’t finish a bank shot from the right block. Alex Caruso then missed a 3 after making four of his first seven, the most he’s made in a game since April 5, 2019.

The Bulls finished 8 of 28 from 3-point range, while former Bulls two-way player Max Strus went 7 of 12 from that distance. Strus scored the Heat’s first 12 points and was 6 of 8 on 3s in the first half. He scored 31 points, sharing game-high honors with Jimmy Butler.

It was a painful, if not poetic display, one that highlighted once and for all an area that must be the franchise’s offseason focus.

“You wouldn’t expect Strus to come out and have 30-plus tonight,” DeRozan said. “It seemed like he didn’t miss in the first half. Take that away, or just do a little bit better job on him making him miss, we win the game.”

Butler, another former Bulls player, refused to allow it at the end.

When the Bulls started missing, the Heat pounced. Tyler Herro shook Caruso for a short-corner jumper. Butler then drove for a continuation layup before missing the ensuing free throw. Still, it gave the Heat a one-point lead they never relinquished.

Nikola Vučević fouled Bam Adebayo in the act of shooting. His two free throws pushed the Heat’s lead to three. DeRozan then split a pair at the foul line. Butler then drove and kicked to Strus for a wing 3 that put Miami ahead by five with 1:14 to play.

“Pretty much all game they made tough shots,” Williams said. “I think that continued down (the stretch). Jimmy was a dog. He showed who he is and why he is the caliber of player that he is. Defensively, offensively, he kind of willed them to that win. If he didn’t make the play, he made a play for somebody else.”

By the time Caruso fouled Strus on a corner 3-point attempt with 40.7 seconds to play, the Heat could taste victory — and the Bulls could sense defeat. Donovan challenged the call, unsuccessfully, and Strus made all three to give Miami breathing room and a date with Milwaukee.

Chicago’s decision-making down the stretch will sting.

Zach LaVine committed two fourth-quarter turnovers and had five of the team’s 11. There was Caruso’s foul on Strus on the corner 3. Meanwhile, Donovan had two coach’s decisions he might want back.

First, Donovan replaced an active Andre Drummond with Nikola Vučević with 8:27 remaining. Drummond had given the Bulls a spark off the bench with defense, rebounding and finishing at the basket. The Bulls built their late, six-point lead with him on the floor.

When Vučević returned, he missed his lone shot the rest of the way and committed three fouls. Two of them looked like shots Drummond might have blocked.

“I just felt like we needed some scoring out there,” Donovan said. “We scored 90-something points. We needed to be able to score a little bit more. And I just thought Vooch being able to spread the floor, maybe we could get some downhill drives. Drummond usually plays around the basket. And again, maybe he could have come up with some offensive rebounds. But I thought we would need some catch-and-shoot situations to close the game out.”

But when the Heat rallied and went up one, Donovan shifted his focus to defense. He subbed an even more effective White, who scored 14 points with five rebounds and four assists off the bench, for Patrick Beverley with 2:17 left. White didn’t return until after Caruso’s costly foul on Strus. Beverley didn’t score Wednesday, missing his four shot attempts while adding two rebounds, four assists and four fouls.

“Really just tried to change it up and do something a little bit different,” Donovan said. “Maybe we could get a steal. Pat Bev could get a rebound. Just somehow get what he does into the game at that point playing from behind. That was it more than anything else.

“I trust Pat Bev when he is open from behind the line. Maybe that’s not his forte, but I do trust him when he does shoot the ball.”

In the end, the Bulls walked out of Miami proud of the fact they never quit on the season. They went 14-9 after the All-Star break — and Beverley had a big hand in that — but no longer could look to another game after letting Friday’s must-win contest get away.

“You don’t want go home, especially after these two games,” LaVine said. “How intense they were. How much everybody’s been caring.The realization that you’re not going to keep playing, it sucks. It has to hurt. If it doesn’t hurt you’re not in the right business.”

But the bottom line is the Bulls never truly went about this season the right way.

“We really did try to sneak it in after having a season where we were not playing up to our potential,” LaVine admitted. “I think we started catching a little momentum but just not enough.”

(Photo of Bam Adebayo and Zach LaVine: Sam Navarro / USA Today)