Sun, 11/01 Bulls @ Heat

Although the regular season is merely three games old, don't be surprised if the blogs and message boards devoted to the Bulls are overloaded with criticism of coach Vinny Del Negro and some of his players after Sunday's performance.
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Bulls' John Salmons (15) drives past Mario Chalmers (6) in the second quarter.
(AP)


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Bulls notes

With an assortment of missed shots, sloppy turnovers and questionable decisions -- on and off the court -- the Bulls turned a tight back-and-forth battle into a fairly comfortable 95-87 Miami Heat victory in American Airlines Arena.

To say this game was winnable for the Bulls is to say that South Beach has decent nightlife.

''We just didn't do enough down the stretch to get this one, to win this one,'' guard Kirk Hinrich said. ''It's just tough. We wanted to bounce back after that Boston game. I don't feel like we played our best today.''

The Bulls (1-2) still are a guard-oriented team and didn't get much production from the backcourt except for John Salmons, who scored 17 points on 7-for-14 shooting. Hinrich (3-for-11) and Derrick Rose (4-for-15) combined for 15 points in nearly 69 minutes of playing time.

Still, the Bulls entered the fourth quarter with a 70-69 lead in a game where neither team had more than a five-point lead to that point. Then with just six minutes remaining, Luol Deng (game-high 26 points) hit a 16-footer for an 80-77 Bulls lead.

But then things began unraveling.