Zach Lavine

Couper Moorhead

1. You would be excused for getting some extreme Saturday night vibes off the start to this Monday night game, with Miami leading 12-2 – scoring on their first five possessions – after leading 22-1 in their loss over the weekend.

Sure enough, Chicago made up the gap soon enough, quickly going on an 8-0 run and knotting the game at 40-40 in the second quarter. But where the first of this two-game series was a defensive battle, this was a veritable offensive explosion, the threes falling – Duncan Robinson and Coby White both hit three early on – and the paint opening up far more than it had before, the HEAT making more shots at the rim in the first half than they did in all of Saturday’s contest. Miami found themselves up, 65-53, at the break after a second-quarter burst from Kevin Love, and running, with an Offensive Rating of 151.2 on 8-of-17 shooting from three.

It wasn’t all thrilling, one Jimmy Butler “skyhook” aside, up-and-down basketball, but that’s not typically how Miami’s grinds out an efficient night absent opponent turnovers. They get to the line, they take care of the ball and they find mismatches to post-up. The write their names in the margins with pen. Doesn’t guarantee you anything, though, and Chicago shot their way back within three minutes into the third only for Bam Adebayo (23 points on 14 shots) to push it back to eight. Back within three again a couple minutes later only for Miami to again push back. HEAT by 12 going into the fourth, their hot offense sustaining just a little better than Chicago’s.

No drama tonight. No clutch. As Chicago’s shooting cooled and they watched defensive rebounds bounce off their fingertips, Miami kept making. This was Miami’s first double-digit victory of the season, 118-100, and we doubt anyone is going to complain about being able to breathe calmly at the end of this one.

2. Some nights, it’s all pretty simple. Miami shot 17-of-35 from three as part of their 129.7 Offensive Rating, with Duncan Robinson going 6-of-9 -- Miami is 32-9 in the past five seasons when Robinson makes at least six threes -- and Kyle Lowry, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Josh Richardson and Kevin Love all hitting at least a pair.

The HEAT have only lost two games in the past five seasons – one loss by one point, the other by two – while shooting at least 48 percent from three, winning 34. The implication of a statistic like that is that the defense generally holds solid enough that any molten hot night like this one is almost always going to be enough to put you over the top. This is a good time for a reminder that Miami shot at least 50 percent from deep six times during last season’s run to the NBA Finals, including twice against Milwaukee, three times against Boston and also in their only win over Denver in the last round. You can never just decide to shoot that well no matter how much you want to, but nights like this – even on slightly lower volume than they have put up in the past – are a big part of greasing the wheels for an offense that can get bogged down when games slow down.

3. Coming into this game Jaime Jaquez Jr. (19 points on 13 shots, team-high +24) was shooting 25 percent on corner threes on 20 attempts, that number being the only real blemish on an otherwise excellent start to his rookie season. With little baseline to go off of and some lower percentages in college – albeit better on catch-and-shoot opportunities – you couldn’t have said it was just a matter of time like you would with an established NBA shooter, but there also wasn’t anything noticeably off about his mechanics.

Tonight, the shots fell. Jaquez Jr. shot 3-of-4 from the corners, and that’s all there is to it. If he can make those at an average or better clip, you’re going to have a hard time picking apart his game. Erik Spoelstra is already having a hard enough time keeping him off the floor as it has already been made perfectly clear how much the team trusts him. All you have to do is watch how often he heads right for the post whenever Jaquez Jr. senses a mismatch, and how often he gets the ball in those spots. It’ll be months until we have a real feel for Jaquez Jr.’s shot, but nights like tonight are all you can ask for.

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Coup's Takeaways: HEAT Rain Threes On Bulls In Monday Night Rematch

1. If you were in the mood for a weird one, HEAT-Bulls was here to satisfy your appetite.

You really couldn’t ask for a better start than Miami had as Chicago’s starters – granted, on a back-to-back – came out flat-flooted and a step behind every action the HEAT were running. What seemed like a fairly innocuous 9-1 start eventually stretched all the way out to 22-1, the HEAT getting to all their spots and the Bulls barely even approaching the paint.

But as teams like San Antonio and Charlotte have learned against Miami on the other side of things with their own big leads, first-quarter leads are nothing but first-quarter leads. Chicago’s bench came in and kick started the process of crawling back. Jevon Carter, Alex Caruso and Patrick Williams all found their energy on defense and got to blowing up some of the actions that were working so easily for the HEAT minutes before and a handful of shots started to fall. First it was an 11-0 Chicago run, and soon enough they were back within six in the second quarter.

Miami held them off from there, buoyed by helpful shotmaking from Bam Adebayo (18 at the half) and Jimmy Butler (12) along with some in-the-bonus fouls on Chicago’s side, and by halftime it was still 50-40 after the Bulls had crawled back within two. Neither team was scoring well, the Bulls were just scoring worse (with an Offensive Rating of 87) and making more mistakes in the margins. Zach LaVine, Chicago’s leading scorer, had only taken three shots at that point.

Adebayo opened the second half with a trio of mid-range jumpers, but the grind for both teams continued from there, Miami getting to the free-throw line to keep them out front, the Bulls struggling to get downhill but capitalizing on a few missed transition pickups. Eight-point game after three.

Bulls back within four early in the fourth, but a pair of HEAT threes from Caleb Martin and Josh Richardson stretched it back to 10. As Miami went to zone and Chicago again stalled out, it looked like it might be clear sailing, but a few more threes from Chicago on broken plays brought them back within three again. Another clutch game, DeMar DeRozan making it a one-point game with just over three to play. Tied with 1:39 to go even after consecutive Butler scores on LaVine, and Chicago took their first lead, by three with under a minute to play, on a Caruso three created from a LaVine (13 points, six assists, three steals), much more aggressive in the second half, drive. Butler tied it up with a step-back three in the corner, only for DeRozan to take another lead with a tough jumper. Miami had their chance thanks to DeRozan’s fourth front-rimmed free-throw of the night, but Butler (25 points on 16 shots) missed a tightly contested triple in the corner, DeRozan (23 points on 12 shots, 9-of-13 from the line) made his next two at the stripe and that was the end of Miami’s seven-game winning streak, Bulls win 102-97.

2. There is not a ton of exciting fruit on the tree with this one when it comes to themes and analysis, but the shot charts of each team had one very specific thing in common: they both attempted just 14 shots in the restricted area.

One side of that coin is that it’s exactly what Miami does with their defense because it’s what their entire defense is built around. Even without a big seven-footer sitting in the paint all night, they’ve been one of the most elite rim-deterring teams around for years now because of the way they pinch off drives high up in the paint and how much ground Adebayo is able to cover. Chicago was starved for just about any paint touch all night and it was for a good reason. There might not be anything this team does better than make it incredibly difficult to get near the cup. When those teams do get inside, however, they tend to shoot well and Chicago did make 12 of their 14 attempts.

The other side is that Miami has also historically struggled to get to the rim themselves, both as a function of their overall offense – the percent of their attempts that come inside – and over a full season. What has been working so well for them lately is all the off-ball movement, the backdoor cuts that tore up the Spurs and Hornets, but cuts aren’t always going to be there no matter how smart your players are, and that’s often when Miami’s offense hits its cold spells if the outside shots aren’t falling, they aren’t forcing live-ball turnovers or Adebayo and Butler aren’t getting to the line (as they were for the first three quarters tonight). They’ve had plenty of success playing this way so it’s hardly a fatal flaw, but the lack of rim pressure against top-tier defenses is often one of the first things you can point to.

Tonight, the difference was Chicago catching fire from three down the stretch just as Miami has done exactly that in many of their recent wins.

3. Early in the third quarter, Butler brought the ball up the left wing. He then kicked it to Adebayo at the top of the arc and sprinted toward the rim as Kyle Lowry set a back screen. One soft pass later from Adebayo and Butler was finishing the lob off the glass.

This was not a night for the beautiful game, but this was one of the two beautiful possessions – the other a cut, pass, pass, drive sequence which ended in a Martin dunk – for Miami. That’s not quite why we’re mentioning it. The play was also exactly what the Philadelphia 76ers used to run for year with Ben Simmons bringing the ball up, and it felt like the 76ers would catch Miami with that same lob – J.J. Redick was typically the one setting the back screen – nearly once a game. Of course Butler is far more of a three-point threat than Simmons ever was, but that’s part of why it’s such an interesting set, using the leverage of the shooter setting the screen, and the passing of the big man who has cleared the paint by working up top, that it can generate such a clear lane for someone defenders often give a little cushion to. It’s a common-enough set that there probably isn’t anything to it, but Erik Spoelstra has been known to take designs that have been used against his team. You never know.

Zach Lavine

Coup's Takeaways: HEAT Rain Threes On Bulls In Monday Night Rematch

Coup's Takeaways: Bulls Dig Out Of Early Hole, Get Hot Late As Miami’s Winning Streak Ends At Seven