Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls Game Breakdown #27

Welcome to Simply Ballin's game breakdown of the Miami Heat. After each game, you will see my thoughts on the game, film breakdown, and other interesting bits that stood out to me.

Quick Thoughts

Although the Chicago Bulls were missing some key players, such as DeMar DeRozan, the Heat were still able to take care of business, quite convincingly.

And by taking care of business, I mean not allowing the Bulls to take a lead. The Heat were in control for the entire game.

Yes, I will repeat, the Bulls were without key players, but the Heat were without their top-2 players and two key rotational players — one of those players was the best player on the court which had Giannis Antetokounmpo.

This was a great win — Duncan Robinson went off for 26 points, Kyle Lowry with a double-double, and a great overall game from PJ Tucker.

The Heat were clicking on everything. Per Cleaning the Glass, they had a 124.1 offensive rating (89th), and a 96.4 defensive rating (85th). But there was one key difference on offense — their turnover percentage was only 10.8%, compared to 22.2% against Milwaukee.

Most importantly, though, it's Lowry doing Lowry things with Jimmy Butler out.

Offensive Breakdown

It hasn't been long since we were talking about how bad Robinson has been. And now we're talking about him being the player of the game.

Robinson finished with 26 points, but the way he continues to diversify his game is the improvement that everyone has been asking for.

https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1470444528251383819

There are a few to discuss here.

Firstly, the way Robinson has improved in his off-ball ability is impressive. The defense is all over him now but not only that, he gets top defenders on him — here, we have Alex Caruso guarding him.

In the first tweet, at the start of the clip, Caruso did a great job at preventing him from using a flex screen. So, to counter that he rises up and gets the pass, and immediately kicks it back. What this allowed Robinson to do is be in the right position to use the screen.

https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1470444585688219650

A subtle difference, but those one-second difference in getting caught up in a screen is all the time that he needs to get open. He has shown this type of thing consistently this season.

He has also shown more counters when the defense is overplaying him. If that does happen, he has shown more confidence in going inside the arc — rather than picking up a dribble, passing it out, or settling for a shot, he feels more comfortable in attacking the rim.

Also, Erik Spoelstra should get credit for some of these plays that manage to get Robinson wide-open shots because of a well-designed play.

Another player that showed up was Lowry.

After a constant slander for not being aggressive enough or for not shooting well — well, he heard you. In the first half, he had 9 points with 3-4 from deep and 12 assists. Oh, and he did that without committing any turnovers.

The Heat struggled with taking care of the ball and that hurt the offense a lot. With as many assists as Lowry dished out, not turning the ball over was probably the most impressive thing.

Finally, there were two other standouts.

Tucker's role on offense has been significantly different from what you may have expected. He isn't just a stationary shooter in the corner. No, he's more involved in handling the ball, setting more screens, and also operating as a facilitator.

https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1470452805303427075

Also, Dewayne freaking Dedmon — 20 points and 12 rebounds with two triples. With Bam Adebayo out, Dedmon has done a tremendous job in filling that starting role.

Defensive Breakdown

The defensive play was the same as the last Bulls game. And that's to blitz the pick and rolls, get the ball out of the stars' hands, double the stars, and trust the rotations to stop the other players.

The Heat executed the plan well. I'm aware that Zach LaVine had 33 points with 7-11 from deep, but most of those shots were tough, contested shots — great offensive stars will give you buckets regardless of the defense.

https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1470464116187971589

But everyone else... the scheme worked.

The Bulls had a turnover percentage of 19.0%. That's a great defense.

https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1470464455972696069

However, there have been some negatives. The Bulls still made 17 3s and one of the reasons was that blitz. The rotations won't be perfect, of course, but there were a few possessions where either the blitz was too weak or the rotations weren't on point.

What this meant was if the blitz was too weak, then LaVine was able to still find a way to attack and find the open man.

https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1470464390315094016

Or it meant when LaVine did get the ball to someone else, the players were too slow to react or were at a clear disadvantage, which allowed an open 3.