Bam Adebayo and Pelle Larsson scored 20 points apiece as the Miami Heat delivered a dominant performance Sunday night, rolling past the Chicago Bulls 134-91 and tying the third-largest margin of victory in franchise history.
Miami led by as many as 54 points, its biggest lead of the season and the second-largest in the play-by-play era for the franchise, which dates back to 1996. Only last season’s 60-point blowout of Memphis surpassed it. The 54-point deficit marked Chicago’s largest since falling behind Boston by 58 in December 2018.
Kel’el Ware added 17 points for the Heat, while Andrew Wiggins and Jaime Jaquez Jr. each scored 14. Davion Mitchell returned from a shoulder injury and chipped in 13 points for Miami, which played without Tyler Herro (ribs) and Norman Powell (personal reasons). Powell was named an NBA All-Star shortly after tipoff, earning the honor for the first time in his career.
Coby White led the Bulls with 16 points. Nikola Vucevic finished with 12 and Ayo Dosunmu added 10 for Chicago, which struggled throughout on both ends of the floor.
One of the night’s lighter moments came in the fourth quarter when Vlad Goldin scored his first NBA points on a dunk, punctuating the play by kicking out his legs in a nod to Michael Jordan’s iconic Jumpman pose.
The matchup completed a rare regular-season quirk, with Miami and Chicago facing each other three consecutive times. A rescheduled January game in Chicago set up a three-game, four-night series between the teams, with the Heat winning two of the three.
Up next:
Chicago heads to Milwaukee on Tuesday, while Miami returns home to host Atlanta the same night.
