The one constant to this most inconsistent of Miami Heat’s seasons: Nothing is easy.
Not in Friday night’s crushing playoff-seeding road loss to an Atlanta Hawks team lacking Trae Young and Clint Capela.
Not in Saturday night’s game when there was an early 24-point lead over the Chicago Bulls at AmericanAirlines Arena.
So there stood the Heat, in cruise mode for 36 minutes, suddenly in a three-point game midway through the fourth quarter of what would turn into an 106-101 escape.
Yes, a victory.
But hardly confidence inspiring against an opponent that entered nine games below .500 and seemingly were on the verge of capitulating for much of the night.
With Jimmy Butler checking back in to settle matters, the Heat held — barely — on to make it four victories in their last five games, remaining as the No. 7 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference with 11 games left in their regular season.
Unable to rest Butler to the preferred degree at the start of the final quarter while playing in the injury absences of Tyler Herro and Goran Dragic, the Heat fended off a 26-point, 14-rebound double-double by long-time nemesis Nikola Vucevic to put it away, with Chicago also getting 31 points from Coby White.
The Heat got 20 points, 10 assists and six rebounds from Bam Adebayo, as well as 20 points and eight assists from Butler, 22 points from Kendrick Nunn and 23 from Duncan Robinson, who converted seven 3-pointers.
———
Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat went up 24 in the second period, led 61-41 at halftime and 80-63 going into the fourth.
But with Butler taking a breather at the top of the final period, and without the offense of Herro and Dragic to step in, the lead was down to 83-74 with 9:27 to play, forcing a timeout. It was the first time the Bulls were within single digits since 17-9.
The lead then was trimmed to 85-81 on a White 3-pointer, forcing another Erik Spoelstra timeout with 7:40 left, in order to reinsert Butler.
But after Chicago closed within 87-84, the Heat pushed back to a nine-point lead by digging in defensively.
Even then, with Adebayo fouling White on a 3-point attempt with 30.3 seconds left, the Heat’s lead was down to 103-99.
It got worse from there, with the Heat called for an eight-second inbounding violation with 21.6 seconds left.
A driving basket by White then got the Bulls within 103-101 with 15.8 seconds left.
A pair of Nunn free throws followed, with matters only settled when a Garrett Temple 3-point attempt rimmed out with 3.9 seconds left.
2. Muscling up: After playing Friday’s first half in Atlanta without a rebound, Adebayo was far more aggressive at the outset Saturday, with 13 points, six assists and four rebounds by halftime.
By the opening minutes of the second period. Adebayo already had extended his career-best streak of consecutive games scoring in double digits to 46.
3. Duncan brews early: With his second 3-pointer, less than four minutes in, Robinson broke his previous franchise-record streak of 24 consecutive games with multiple 3-pointers, a record he set last season.
On his next shot, Robinson made it 15 consecutive games with at least three 3-pointers, one game off the franchise record he set last season.
He then followed with another for a 4-for-4 start, before missing his next two attempts.
He closed the first half with 18 points on 6-of-9 3-point shooting.
4. Pairing up: Saturday marked the opener of a two-game set that concludes Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena against the Bulls. It is the ninth time the Heat have played the same team at the same venue in consecutive games this season.
Of their previous eight such sets, the Heat split five times and were swept three times.
In their five previous home sets, they split lose-win against the Bucks, split lose-win against the Pistons, split lose-win against the Wizards, split win-lose against the Hawks, and were swept by the Pacers in the most recent previous occurrence.
5. Taking stock: Saturday marked the end of a run of eight games in 12 days for the Heat, with Herro and Dragic the latest players given time off.
Over the span, there was one game missed by Adebayo (knee), two off for Butler (ankle), two off for Dragic (knee, back), two for Herro (foot) and two for Andre Iguodala (hip), with Victor Oladipo missing all eight due to soreness in his right knee.
