MIAMI (AP) – Max Strus had another three-pointer taken away in an elimination game. He and Jimmy Butler made sure it didn’t matter. The playoffs await.
Strus and Butler, who was doubled over at times in the final moments, heaving for every breath, scored 31 points apiece, and the Miami Heat closed the game on a 15-1 run to beat the Chicago Bulls 102-91 in an Eastern Conference play-in game yesterday.
“Our team has obviously not been perfect this year,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But I do know one thing about the men in that locker room: The last 48 hours, I know how categorically, unequivocally, how badly and desperately our group wanted to get into this thing and get into the playoffs to have an opportunity to compete for a title.”
Their reward: the number eight seed in the East and a first-round matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA’s top overall seed, starting today.
DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with 26 points and nine assists. Alex Caruso added 16 points, Zach Lavine had 15 but shot just six for 20, and Coby White scored 14. Chicago got a road win at Toronto on Wednesday to extend its season, but couldn’t get the second road victory it needed to make the playoffs.
“They’re disappointed,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “When you make that investment from September to the middle of April, that’s a lot of time. You reflect back a little bit. I think they’re all disappointed. We were getting better as a group, I think, since the All-Star break. It would have been nice if we found a way to win tonight and continue on to the playoffs, but it didn’t happen.”
Tyler Herro added 12 points and Bam Adebayo grabbed 17 rebounds for Miami, which trailed by six midway through the final quarter. But Butler scored while getting fouled with 2:17 left to put Miami ahead for good, found Strus for a three-pointer, his seventh of the night, a minute later to push the lead to five, and Strus sealed it with three free throws after getting fouled on a try from beyond the arc with 40 seconds remaining.
“I don’t think any of us felt any type of pressure,” Butler said. “We went out, we competed.”
The Heat led by 14 in the first quarter, held as much as a 10-point lead in the third quarter, then found themselves down by six with 7:12 remaining.
