For a few minutes Thursday night, it seemed that Ayo Dosunmu would lift the Chicago Bulls to a comeback win with sheer force of will. In the fourth quarter of the Bulls’ 116-113 loss to the Miami Heat, the guard certainly tried. Dosunmu operated at times like a one-man wrecking crew, forcing his w ay downhill in the half court and cracking open the Heat’s confounded defense in the flow of transition. But one series with four minutes remaining highlighted the fruitlessness of this effort. Dosunmu plucked the ball away after it was fumbled by Norman Powell, who crashed to the ground as Matas Buzelis blew past him. The ball ricocheted off the ground and then into the air and into the hands of two Heat players. Bam Adebayo snagged the loose ball and slung a pass back to Powell, only for Dosunmu to pick it off once again. He passed to Kevin Huerter for a 3-point shot. Clank. Dosunmu gathered the ball and passed it this time to Coby White, who launched his own counter. Clank. There was only so much that Dosunmu could do on his own. The guard scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter while his teammates combined for 13. “He’s got a spirit about him that he never thinks he’s out of it,” coach Billy Donovan said of Dosunmu. “That kind of permeates through the team.” Dosunmu nearly rallied the Bulls from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit. They were down 104-92 with 8:02 remaining before outscoring the Heat 21-12 the rest of the way to make it close. In many ways, the game was a mess. Staffers crouched with towels on the baseline spent an undue portion of the night sprinting to various corners of the United Center court, mopping up sweat off the hardwood after players from both teams had tumbled and tripped and sprawled onto the floor. Both teams had a worthy excuse. The Bulls were barely 21 hours removed from a loss to the Pacers in Indianapolis. The Heat landed in Chicago at 4:30 a.m. Thursday after hosting the Orlando Magic the night before. The winner of this game would be determined by which team survived disrepair and disorganization better. Although Dosunmu dominated the final quarter, it was White who found himself with the ball in his hands for the potential game-tying shot, curling around a screen on an out-of-bounds play to launch a 3-pointer that could have kept the Bulls alive. The Bulls have been electric in these scenarios this season, going 16-12 in clutch games and 12-4 in games with a one-possession deficit in the final 10 seconds before Thursday’s loss. And White is the player the Bulls want taking all of their final shots, a battle-tested, clutch shooter who takes more 3s than any other player on the roster. But on Thursday, the best shot on the floor still wasn’t good enough. White’s attempt glanced off the rim, giving the Bulls their third straight loss in four days to drop them to 23-25. “Hurt my heart, man,” White said. “It came off my hand and I thought it was good. It was on line. I got a clean look. Hit the back of the rim. Just didn’t fall. You take it and learn from it. I’ve hit that shot before in those moments. I’m blessed to be in that moment. I just look forward to the next time I get the opportunity to be in that moment again.” Here are four takeaways from the loss. 1. Sloppy mistakes The Bulls knew they couldn’t let things get sloppy. The Heat thrive when their opponent is off-balance, setting a frantic pace from the opening tip and transforming mistakes into extra points. This is a challenge for teams like the Bulls, who can’t gear down to a more controllable speed without losing the best aspects of their offense. The first half captured the danger of allowing the Heat to command the tempo and tenor of play. The Bulls gave up 18 points off turnovers in that 24-minute span, allowing guards Dru Smith and Jaime Jaquez Jr. to crank up the pressure at the top of the perimeter. The game calmed down in the third quarter — in which the Bulls gave up a single turnover for zero points — but that reprieve didn’t last once the Heat caught their breath. The Bulls gave up an additional five points off turnovers in the fourth quarter. The Heat ultimately converted 23 points off 15 turnovers. 2. Close-range finishing The Bulls relied heavily on their 3-point shooting in Thursday’s loss as shots failed to fall inside the arc. They missed 12 of their 27 shots at the rim (55.6%) and made only 19 shots in the paint while shooting 40.4% in that zone. The Bulls ultimately finished with a slightly better shooting percentage from 3-point range (39.5%) than 2-point range (39.3%) This issue was exacerbated when center Jalen Smith reaggravated a calf injury in the first half after playing only 15 minutes, forcing the Bulls to revert to small-ball rotations that leave them vulnerable around the basket at both ends of the court. 3. Josh Giddey sidelined The Bulls played without guard Josh Giddey, who was not made available for the back-to-back after experiencing tightness in a hamstring he strained earlier this season. Giddey has missed 12 games from the injury. Donovan did not rule out the possibility that Giddey will sit out one of the games this weekend in Miami. White also could be held out of one game to manage ongoing calf injuries that have limited him throughout the season. But both guards will travel with the team with the intention of attempting to play both games. 4. One down, two to go The loss was the first of three Bulls-Heat games in four days. The Bulls will have an off day Friday to travel to Miami, then play a back-to-back against the Heat on Saturday and Sunday. This is a result of the Jan. 8 game that was postponed and rescheduled for Thursday because of extreme condensation on the United Center court. ...read more read less