Facing off for part two of a rare three-game series, the Miami Heat will look to prolong the visiting Chicago Bulls’ recent woes Saturday night.
The teams had their Jan. 8 game in Chicago postponed to Jan. 29 due to condensation on the court, leading to three games in four days between the two sides. The set, which will wrap up in Miami on Sunday, will mark the first time that two teams have played three straight regular-season games against each other since the Baltimore Bullets and Houston Rockets met for three games in a row from Nov. 28-Dec. 1, 1972.
Following a five-game Western Conference road trip, the Heat started a string of four games in five days on Wednesday with a 133-124 loss to the Orlando Magic. Miami followed that with a 116-113 victory over Chicago on Thursday.
Erik Spoelstra’s team is battling through the toughest part of its travel schedule, and it’s not just the players who are feeling the fatigue.
“I’ll take a day to think about it,” Spoelstra said of what he enjoys most about the three-game “chess match.” “I don’t even know what city I’m in right now, but I’ll be ready for Saturday night.”
Miami led by 13 points in the fourth quarter Thursday before staving off Chicago. Bam Adebayo finished with a 20-point, 12-rebound double-double, posting his sixth consecutive 20-point game.
Ahead of two more outings against the Bulls, Adebayo knows what he can produce in this matchup.
“I’m just being aggressive, shooting the open shot, not really thinking about it. Just continuing to stay in this flow,” said Adebayo, who said the quirky schedule resembles a playoff schedule. “It does, because you’re constantly seeing them. But for us, we know what’s at hand. We’ve got to take care of business.”
Adebayo averages 18 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, while Norman Powell leads the Heat with a career-high 23 points per contest.
Chicago dropped its third straight game Thursday as its lead over the Charlotte Hornets for the Eastern Conference’s No. 10 seed was reduced to 2 1/2 games. As the Bulls hover around the .500 mark for the fourth straight year, head coach Billy Donovan has seen the emergence of Ayo Dosunmu in more ways than one. The fifth-year guard is averaging a career-best 14.8 points per game, but it’s been his growth as a leader that’s impressed the team.
“Ayo has been very, very vocal with his voice the last two years, which I think we need,” Donovan said. “He’s also got a spirit about him that he never thinks he’s out of it. I think that kind of permeates through the team. I just love his spirit, his competitiveness and the way he treats big moments.”
Dosunmu led all scorers with 23 points Thursday. Chicago was without Josh Giddey (18.6 points, 8.8 assists, 8.6 rebounds per game) due to hamstring injury maintenance. Giddey missed 11 straight games with the injury in late December and early January.
