Tapping Out

Well, you can say the Bulls are mathematically still in playoff contention, but it doesn't look like this year is meant to be.  The bright side for Thursday's game against the Miami Heat is that they looked alive and well most of the time.  That's not much of a consolation though.  They lost 106-98, putting them one loss or one Indiana win from playoff elimination.

This game, in which the Bulls tried to avoid being swept by Miami in a season series for the first time since 2003-04, featured nine lead changes.  They led by a point with 4:43 left, but that's when the Heat began to pull away to the tune of a 21-12 game-ending run.  Fast breaks, penetration, 3-point plays and traditional 3-pointers were all a part of it.  Simply put, the defense was eaten alive.

All five Miami starters, plus two bench players, scored in double figures.  Dwyane Wade was the ringleader with 21 points.  His four assists tied for the team lead with Joe Johnson (17 points) and Goran Dragic, who scored 16 achieved a double-double with 12 rebounds.  Hassan Whiteside also grabbed 12 boards to go with 16 points of his own.

Jimmy Butler had game highs of 25 points and six assists.  Pau Gasol logged his latest double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.  Derrick Rose scored 17 and Bobby Portis had 10 boards.  Unfortunately, as you can probably guess, they couldn't get much support from the other five players who saw action.

You probably wonder how this defense can give up so many points on a nightly basis.  One recurring theme has been points in the paint, at least for Heat opponents.  Miami, which scored 64 of those points in this game, is shooting 63 percent from less than five feet on the year, third in the league.  Combine that with poor rotations as well as giving up 100 points regularly and sooner or later, that's going to hurt.

If you can believe it, the Bulls are 39-40, three games out of a playoff spot with three games to go.  That's a huge drop from a team that was supposed to challenge Cleveland for East dominance.  Now, they look destined to join 13 other teams in a room in May during the draft lottery.  As another Bulls blog mentioned on Twitter, it would be enjoyable for a front office that overvalued the roster and new coaching staff to be forced to wait for a top-3 pick it's not going to get.  A pity Gar Forman and John Paxson will probably send someone else to sit down.

The Bulls could be knocked out of postseason contention Saturday in a nationally televised tilt against the Cleveland Cavaliers, so LeBron James could maintain what's become his annual tradition of ending the club's season.  But the outcome will be moot if Indiana beats Toronto on Friday.  Still, it would be a nice example of kicking the dog if Cleveland won anyway.  Amazing how this poor excuse for a season has me turning to schadenfreude.