Even with the dynamic “Big 3” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Chicago Bulls are still being torched by the Miami Heat when it matters most.
TNT play-by-play analyst Kevin Harlan said it during Thursday night’s broadcast between the Bulls and the Miami Heat right before the first half ended.
“The postseason has already started for the Bulls. They can’t afford a loss,” Harlan said.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, that’s exactly what happened.
The Heat gashed the Bulls again for another 60+ point second half performance, Hassan Whiteside was an animal down the stretch on the glass and the Miami all but eliminated the Bulls from playoff contention with a 106-98 victory over the now-under-.500 Bulls.
“As players … we didn’t do our job well enough during the season and each and every one of us has to take responsibility for it,” said center Pau Gasol, via Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune.
“It’s not about pointing fingers … his fault or the other guy’s fault. It’s everyone’s.”
The Bulls played well enough to win on Thursday. They jumped out to a 46-40 halftime lead and kept the Heat from really breaking the game open. Even in the second half, when it looked like Miami would put the Bulls out of their misery for good, they hung around and kept the game close.
They even tackled guys to keep them from scoring.
Doug McDermott tries wrapping up Hassan Whiteside they both end up going down to the court. pic.twitter.com/9VOFzuAfvU
— ✶ Ⓜ️𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕤 ▶️ ✶ (@_MarcusD_) April 8, 2016
To be fair, Doug McDermott tackles better than half of the Chicago Bears defense, so him keeping Whiteside from scoring here wasn’t a bad thing. It led to a flagrant-1 call on McDermott — the first flagrant of the year for the Bulls — but it was totally worth because everyone was just fine.
Down the stretch, it would come down to two big sequences that just didn’t go the Bulls’ way and basically knocked them out of the playoff hunt.
The first one:
With just over five minutes left in the game and the Bulls up one, the Bulls had a 4-on-3 transition opportunity to build a little momentum. But, Jimmy Butler passed on an open triple, dished to Justin Holiday, who then missed his open look from deep.
On the other end, Miami converted and took the lead back, which forced a timeout from the Bulls.
The second one:
Another big sequence. Gasol gets a big OREB, Butler finds Rose underneath on a pretty pass, Whiteside swats it away, Wade gets the and-one.
— Michael Whitlow (@couldbelikemike) April 8, 2016
Wade’s and-one conversion off Whiteside’s first (and only) block of the night put the Heat up four with 3:46 left and that was basically all she wrote for the Bulls in this game and for their season most likely.
Next: With the postseason unlikely, what's next for the Bulls?
Looking ahead:
Basically, the season comes down to Friday night for the Bulls.
If the Indiana Pacers win against the Toronto Raptors on the road, the Bulls are officially eliminated from playoff contention and can start making their summer plans.
The Bulls own a 3-1 series tiebreaker over the Pacers, but have lost the tiebreaker to the eighth-seeded Detroit Pistons and would need the Pacers to lose out to make the postseason and would needed to win out against Cleveland, New Orleans and Philadelphia to even have a shot.