Offense falters late as Heat fall 93-86 in Game 1 to Bulls

The game began with a lot of energy and execution for the Miami Heat. And that means every single person on earth who was watching this contest thought Miami was going to win. Every one.

Defensively, Miami was engaged. The pick-and-roll defense was a work of art. The trapping and recovering on these screens was fluid. The rotations were solid.

On offense, the Heat we're finding good looks on the perimeter, although Chicago's defense was nothing to sneeze at. Almost anyone watching this game objectively had no doubt these shots would begin to fall, and Miami would pull away. But as the game went on, the depleted Chicago Bulls seemed poised to steal the game, and Miami faded down the stretch in a 93-86 loss.

Miami's defense turned out to never be much of a problem aside from a few miscues, but the offense never came around. The Heat shot a shade under 40 percent for the game, and got outscored by the Bulls 35-24 in the fourth quarter.

The game got away in the last few minutes, with Nate Robinson making a few buckets and Miami failing to execute down the stretch. Up 86-82 with 2:02 left, the Heat didn't score again. After a Marco Belinelli 3-pointer and a Robinson jumper, the Bulls went up 88-86, and the Heat ran a 2-3 pick-and-roll with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, with no secondary actions, which resulted in an isolation for Wade and a pull up 3-pointer that predictably bricked.

After another Robinson lay-up on Ray Allen, Miami got an isolation from LeBron James that resulted in another missed jumper.

Miami threw up another few 3-point heaves that didn't go, and here we are. Nate Robinson essentially out-dueled Dwyane Wade and LeBron James down the stretch. Amazing really did happen tonight.