Vucevic Struggles, Seven Players in Protocol As Heat Rout Bulls

The Bulls dropped to third in the Eastern Conference after losing to the Miami Heat on Saturday night, 118-92. A quote from Draymond Green's post-game press conference from the Warriors' loss to the 76ers felt applicable to the Bulls' loss against the Heat. "We missed a lot of good shots," Green said. "When you miss shots, you lose." That's exactly what the Bulls did, miss shots. While they managed to somewhat match the Heat's fiery night from three, shooting 42.5 percent of their own from distance, the Bulls shot 37.3 percent from the field. Here are some overarching thoughts from the Bulls' second loss in a row.

This is getting out of hand

Hours before the game, the team announced Ayo Dosunmu and Stanley Johnson entered the league's health and safety protocols. There are now seven players in Covid-19 protocols. Luckily, Caruso returned to the starting lineup coming off of a hamstring injury. He provided some damage control on defense (-4 plus/minus, lowest of all the starters) and grab seven boards on the night. Troy Brown Jr. also entered the starting lineup for the first time this season. Brown added 10 points, four rebounds and four assists on 4-of-11 shooting from the field. The bench, on the other hand, needed name tags for casual Bulls fans. Alonzo McKinnie, the second hardship exception player signed due to the team's outbreak, played an uncanny 29 minutes, scoring just six points. Alongside McKinnie for valuable minutes entered Devon Dotson, who added six points, and Tony Bradley, adding four points and seven rebounds. Late in the fourth, Donovan pulled the plug on a Bulls' comeback and let Marko Simonovic, Tyler Cook and Alize Johnson see the floor.

Vucevic's struggles

Nikola Vucevic gave another poor performance against the Heat. Vooch ended with 10 points on 3-of-15 shooting from the field and added eight rebounds and two assists. He resulted in a team-worst -29 plus/minus on the floor. The big man's struggles are starting to get out of hand. This season, he is shooting an abysmal 41.5 percent from the floor and 34.4 percent from distance. To put it into perspective, Vooch is barely shooting over 50 percent from within three feet of the basket (53.6 percent). He is also shooting 34.8 percent from 16 feet to 3-point range, which is a career-low for him. To make matters worse, Vucevic let his matchup, backup center DeWayne Dedmon filling in for Bam Adebayo, record a 20-point, 12-rebound double-double against him. Dedmon is a guy who averages 15.6 minutes and 5.5 points per game. It's safe to say Vucevic is not in a good space right now, something he even admitted after the game, according to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. "It's not working for me right now and I've never been through a slump like this," Vucevic said in his post-game interview.

Miami Heat's offense

Similar to the Bulls, the Heat came into this one short-handed. They played without Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Markieff Morris and Caleb Martin. Erik Spoelstra rolled out a Lowry-Vincent-Robinson-Tucker-Dedmon starting lineup. The Heat used their signature, off-ball offense to disorient the Bulls in the first half. They put up 39 points in the first quarter off of nine three-pointers and 13 points from Duncan Robinson. The Heat had three players in double figures by the first half with Robinson (18), Dedmon (14) and Herro (10) off the bench.

The Bulls were clearly unprepared to contest the perimeter, allowing the Heat to shoot 56.5 percent from distance in the first half, and 44.2 percent from three in the game. Backdoor cuts and 22 points off of 14 Bulls' turnovers made this game unachievable for them to win. Chicago also had no answer for Robinson, who scored 26 points through three quarters on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 from distance. Robinson has undoubtedly had a down year thus far this season, averaging just 10 points and shooting 36.7 percent from the field. Yet, he and Dedmon cruised past the Bulls offensively.

On the bright side...

Zach LaVine viciously attacked the Heat. He dropped 33 points on 11-of-20 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 shooting from distance. He added seven rebounds and four assists to a dominant night on offense. The NBA Gods graciously gifted the Bulls with the next two days off and a matchup back at the United Center versus the 4-20 Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night. By then, it's hopeful the Bulls will retain some of the players from health and safety protocols and return to tallying the win column. The Bulls can afford to drop some losses after posing a 17-8 record before their two-game skid, but can they get back on track?