It’s been more of a haunting than a rivalry.
Few teams have crushed the Bulls’ dreams in the last 15 years or so more than the Heat.
Whether it was LeBron James showing Derrick Rose whom the real MVP was in the playoffs or Jimmy Butler sending Zach LaVine and Co. on an early spring vacation the last few seasons, Miami has been a place where the Bulls’ hopes have gone to die.
That’s why Bulls coach Billy Donovan is taking nothing for granted. It doesn’t matter to him that his team swept the 2024-25 season series from the Heat or that the play-in showdown this season will be at the United Center rather than in Miami.
‘‘The game Wednesday [will] be the last game of the year if we don’t win, so we have to throw everything we’ve got into that game,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘I’m a big believer each game is its own individual. What’s in the past is in the past. You can take things from games, but this is totally fresh and new; everything is new.
‘‘Sure, you will look at how you played against them the three times we played, but their roster changed [with the trade of Butler] and so has ours [with the trade of LaVine]. So it’s not the exact teams. Different year, different challenges and different opportunities.’’
What Donovan and the Bulls have in their favor is a red-hot backcourt that has given the Heat issues all season — with or without LaVine. Josh Giddey has been a matchup nightmare in all three games, averaging a triple-double with 26 points, 10.3 rebounds and 10 assists, and Coby White has averaged 20.3 points and 4.7 assists.
But the story in all three games has been the Bulls’ ability to wear down the Heat with their pace of play through the first three quarters before overwhelming them in the fourth. The Bulls have outscored the Heat by a combined 102-68 in the fourth quarter of the three games.
That makes sense, considering that the Bulls are a top-three team in terms of pace (104.6 possessions per 48 minutes) and the Heat are last in the league (97.7).
That’s why Wednesday will be all about which team can force its identity on the other.
‘‘I really appreciate what these guys have done on a lot of different levels,’’ Donovan said about the up-tempo transformation his players have made this season. ‘‘To change the way we changed stylistically [from previous years] and for them to be committed physically was helpful. As I said from Day 1, if we don’t run, we’re done. I think we did a good job of that.’’
The job isn’t finished, however. Playing in the No. 9 vs. No. 10 game of the play-in tournament has a definite March Madness feel to it because it’s one-and-done. There’s no regrouping, watching the film and adjusting the game plan.
That will be the message as soon as the Bulls wrap up the regular season Sunday in Philadelphia. There will be little room for error, no matter how the regular season went.
‘‘It’s going to be a tough game,’’ veteran big man Nikola Vucevic said. ‘‘It always is when you play Miami, a very well-coached team, well-prepared. But that’s whoever we’d be playing because it’s win or go home.
‘‘It should be a fun game — at home, big crowd. It’s not going to come down to X’s and O’s as much as the hustle plays, the effort and all that. When you play Miami, what they run is very disciplined.
‘‘We have to be at our best.’’
Or the ending will feel very familiar.