Thursday, March 28, 2013

Miami Heat Winning Streak Ended at 27 Games

With the Chicago Bulls' 101-97 victory over Miami last night, the Heat's winning streak has fallen six short of the NBA record 33-game mark set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.

My primary impression from the Heat-Bulls game is that Miami never got the late barrage of three-point shots that had carried it to victories in other games during the streak. The Heat shot only 7-of-20 for the game from behind the arc. Four of these made shots occurred in the second half.

Miami did experience a little boomlet of three-point success late in the third quarter, when it was either tying or taking a one-point lead in the game. According to the play-by-play sheet, Mario Chalmers hit a three with 5:31 remaining in the third, followed by a pair of Shane Battier treys at the 4:30 and 2:25 marks of the third. What followed were seven straight Miami misses from downtown, until Chris Bosh made a three with just five seconds left in the game.

Contrast the Heat's poor three-point shooting at Chicago with how Miami had done while winning some of its most recent games during the streak:
  • Against Orlando (win number 27), the Heat went 7-of-10 from long distance in the final 15 minutes of the game.
  • Against Cleveland (win 24), Miami hit 6-of-7 treys during a fourth-quarter stretch in scoring an amazing comeback win.
  • Four three-pointers in roughly a two-minute span helped Miami put away Toronto (win 22).

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