Chicago Bulls end their season with a Play-in loss to Miami Heat

The roller coaster season for the Chicago Bulls ended with a 91-102 loss in Miami. The win in this elimination game propelled the Heat to the Playoffs where they will face the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1st round. On the other hand, this outcome is already fueling numerous speculations about possible changes that could be happening in Chicago during the off-season.

Jimmy got buckets

The biggest star of the night was former Bulls player Jimmy Butler who went off for 31 buckets, with 22 of them coming in the second half. He had a perfect partner in Max Strus who also dropped 31 points while tying the Play-in record for made 3-pointers in a game with seven long range connections. He is also a former 2-way contract member of the Bulls.

DeMar DeRozan showed up for the Bulls with 26 points, four rebounds, and nine assists. Four of his teammates did their best to provide some support by also scoring in double digits, but it wasn't enough.

Zach LaVine carried a lot of the offensive load for the Bulls during the end of the season, but last night he failed to do so, scoring only 15 points while taking the most shots (21) for Chicago. With only six successful attempts, his field-goal percentage was at an abysmal 28.6%.

The Bulls were so close

Zach was aware of the missed opportunity since the Bulls stayed close to Miami all game long and actually took the lead in the third quarter when Flight 8 had a monstrous dunk.

TAKE OFF FLIGHT 8.@ZachLaVine | #SeeRed pic.twitter.com/koBtM3yESk
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 15, 2023

"It hurts. I just didn't shoot the ball well. A lot of good shots that normally go in. It sucks knowing that we were so close. If I make a couple of those, it could be the tipping point. So it hurts a lot," Zach said.

The Bulls were even ahead with about two and a half minutes left in the game, but managed to put up just one more point until the end, thus clearing the runway for the Heat to fly away to the Playoffs.

The roller-coaster theme will carry into the off-season

Following a season full of highs and lows, Chicago will be facing an equally up-and-down near future. Nikola Vucevic and the team must work out an extension before July 1, as failure to do so will mean Vooch becomes an unrestricted free agent.

Coby White proved his worth in the loss with 14 points off the bench on 4-of-6 three-point shooting, making the fact that he is in restricted free agency territory an even bigger challenge for the front office. The same applies to Ayo Dosunmu, who perhaps could have made an impact against the Heat, but was given less than 5 minutes of total playing time.

Left it all out there 💔 pic.twitter.com/KDryCTBLMp
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 15, 2023