MIAMI — Takeaways from the Heat’s 110-102 against the Chicago Bulls on Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena:
— The Heat has been one of the NBA’s worst-shooting teams in the clutch all season and that continued Monday.
As we noted here on Sunday, the Heat entered Monday’s game shooting 38.5 percent in the clutch, ahead of only Houston, and 23.4 percent on clutch threes, better than only the Spurs and Rockets.
During clutch time on Monday - defined by the NBA as the final five minutes of games with a margin of five points or fewer - the Heat shot 2 for 12.
The number would have been slightly better if A) Jimmy Butler hadn’t somehow missed a layup and B) if the referees hadn’t missed Bulls basket interference on what should have been a basket by Butler.
The Heat’s clutch misses also included an airball from Goran Dragic and two missed threes from Gabe Vincent, who was playing a lot late because Miami was missing five rotation players.
The late-game misses also included two errant threes from Butler, who is 0 for 9 on threes in his last six games.
And Butler, on an otherwise strong night, missed a layup after stealing the ball with less than 40 seconds left, leaving Chicago ahead by four.
Equally problematic was the Heat’s fourth quarter defense. Chicago hit 5 of 9 fourth-quarter threes and 12 for 19 overall from the field.
The Heat led 82-76 after three but was outscored by 14 in the fourth quarter and blew a chance to sweep the two-game series against Chicago.
Miami shot just 7 for 24 from the field in the fourth quarter, including 2 for 12 on threes.
The Heat committed a season-low six turnovers but was outrebounded, 51-34. Miami is 13-22 when outrebounded this season.
— Butler came out attacking, and Bam Adebayo followed his lead on banner nights for both.
At one point overlapping the second and third quarters, Butler and Adebayo combined for 19 consecutive Heat points, with some Bulls points mixed in that stretch.
Butler finished with 33 points - matching a season high - to go along with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. He closed 11 for 21 from the field.
Adebayo finished with 23 points, six rebounds and two assists, shooting 9 for 14.
Butler was at his aggressive best in the first and third quarters, combining for 25 points in those two periods.
You knew from the start that Butler would be looking for his shot on a night Miami was severely short-handed.
He began the night driving maniacally to the basket, dunking off an offensive rebound and playing with relentless energy in a 10-point first quarter.
With the Heat ahead by one at halftime, Butler began the third quarter with a steal; he entered leading the league in that category (2.1) while also ranking third in the NBA in average deflections per game. Then he delivered two perfect passes to Adebayo for dunks.
And then Butler resumed looking for his own offense, scoring from the midrange, the basket area and the free throw line in a 15-point third quarter.
Among the most impressive aspects of Butler’s night: He shot 11 for 11 on free throws.
Adebayo also attacked early but didn’t find his offensive groove until a 12-point second quarter when he made all five of his field goal attempts.
Adebayo, often drawn away from the basket on defense, had only one rebound in the game’s first 34 minutes.
But the strong offensive nights from Butler and Adebayo couldn’t overcome the Heat’s dreadful 7 for 36 three-point shooting (19.4 percent).
— With four rotation guards unavailable, the Heat lost a fifth in the second half.
Having already ruled out Andre Iguodala (hip) and Victor Oladipo (knee), Miami learned before the game that it would again be without Tyler Herro (foot soreness) and Kendrick Nunn (neck spasm).
That left the Heat with only four players who have played primarily guard this season: Dragic, Duncan Robinson and two-way contract players Vincent and Max Strus.
And Robinson left for good late in the third quarter because he wasn’t feeling well. He seemed out of sync, shooting 1 for 7 in 26 minutes on a three-point night, and his streak of making at least two three-pointers ended after 25 consecutive games.
Dragic started for the 11th time this season and played well early, but closed with only eight points on 3 for 9 shooting, to go with seven assists and six rebounds.
Strus scored five points in the final minute of the third quarter. Vincent gave the Heat a lift with his defense - he drew two charges and contested a bunch of shots - and hit a three early in the fourth, after the Bulls had closed to within one.
Trevor Ariza - the former small forward turned power forward - scored 13 in the first half but struggled with his shot in the second half, closing with 18.
And for only the second time in the past seven games, Spoelstra summoned power forward Nemanja Bjelica, who logged 11 minutes.
And Dewayne Dedmon scored five of his eight in the fourth.
— The Heat remained in seventh in the East.
Atlanta lost to Detroit and the Knicks lost to Phoenix, but Miami squandered an opportunity close to within one game of the fourth place Hawks and fifth place Knicks.
The Heat (32-30) fell one half game behind No. 6 Boston.
And though the Heat has already lost the tiebreaker to the Hawks, it owns the tiebreaker against the Knicks, who have a difficult remaining schedule, including a looming road trip that includes games at Houston, Memphis, Phoenix, Denver, the Lakers and Clippers.
So Miami will have every opportunity to surpass the Knicks and avoid the play-in game that comes with finishing anywhere from seventh to 10thin in the conference.
The Heat needs to beat Boston twice on the road - May 9 and 11 - to win the tiebreaker with the Celtics.
— Heat slayer Nik Vucevic continued to torment the Heat.
Because of his Mach 25 trade from Orlando, the Heat ended up playing against the skilled-shooting center five times this season, the most it will face any player during the regular season.
And Vucevic again made the Heat miserable, scoring 17 in the first half en route to 24 points and 11 rebounds.
He gave the Bulls a 97-95 lead with just over five minutes left, then dished to Garrett Temple for a basket after the Heat tied it. And then he hit a jumper.
He entered averaging 25.8 points, 13 rebounds and 4.5 assists in four games against the Heat this season, while shooting 52.6 percent from the field and 41.9 percent on threes.
In 33 career games against the Heat, Vucevic came into Monday averaging 18.8 points against Miami, his highest average against any Eastern Conference team excluding Philadelphia.
Daniel Theis, the Bulls’ other starting power rotation player, scored 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter.
