Bulls Take a Step in Play-In Tournament Seeding with Victory Over Heat
- Drew Stevens (@Drew_H_Stevens)
- 14 hours ago
- 3 min read
Coby White was strolling through the locker room, heading for the showers in a roundabout way, when he spotted Josh Giddey in the middle of a media scrum.
“Thank you Josh,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear. “Have a good night.”
On an evening in which White was held under 20 points for just the second time in the last 21 games, Giddey, indeed,
came to the rescue, helping himself to his seventh triple-double of the season and the Chicago Bulls to a 119-111 victory over the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
The win brings the Bulls a step closer to finishing with the ninth-best record in the Eastern Conference for the second season in a row and hosting the Heat once more when the Play-In Tournament starts next week.
Handling the Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers is all that’s left to do, although an eighth-place finish and a date with the Orlando Magic is still possible should the Atlanta Hawks drop two of their last three games.
“We knew coming into the game the implications a win or loss had,” said Giddey, who added three blocks and two steals to his 28 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists for good measure. “So obviously happy with the win but we can’t look too far ahead. We’ll see where we end up after 82 games, but we’re confident we can go into a Play-In game and beat anybody.”
It was something of a banner night for the organization that opted to sit White, Giddey, Kevin Huerter and Nikola Vučević the night before in Cleveland, and, in doing so, essentially bet on itself to take care of business.
It also didn’t hurt that, outside of scoring 19 points in the first five minutes of the game and forcing White into 1-of-8 shooting through the first three quarters, the Heat couldn’t get a bead on the home team.
“We play unselfish. We play together,” said Huerter, who shot 5-of-7 on twos and 4-of-9 from the arc for 22 points. “Our thing is if we can take care of the ball and continue to just get good shots, we like our chances night in and night out.”
Before tipoff, Billy Donovan spoke about the game, its stakes and value to player development. With every player in his rotation not named Matas Buzelis having some measure of post-season experience, it was clear who was top of mind.
In what was perhaps the defining moment of the game, Buzelis caught a pass in the corner from Huerter and, without hesitation, launched a three. As soon as the ball made a clean exit through the bottom of the net to extend the lead to 117-109, Buzelis aimed a shit-eating grin at the Heat bench, which had tried to do everything it could to rattle the 20-year-old rookie.
In 35 minutes, Buzelis logged 17 points, four rebounds, one steal, one block and a team-best +21 plus/minus.
“He’s not afraid,” Donovan said. “He’ll lean into moments. I’m happy he’s in these moments where there’s something of meaning in these games for us as it relates to trying to play after the regular season is over with.
“It’s really encouraging to see how much he’s grown throughout the year.”
Somewhere, Artūras Karnišovas is grinning from ear to ear. But that’s a story for another day.