The Miami Heat went on the road and beat the Chicago Bulls in an NBA Cup blowout game. Here's what led to that outcome.

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 143-107 blowout win over the Chicago Bulls (8-7) on Friday night at United Center to open a two-game grip and improve to 2-1 during the four-game group-stage of the NBA Cup in-season tournament. The Heat (10-6) closes the trip on Sunday afternoon against the 76ers in Philadelphia:

On this week’s Heat Check: What’s we’ve learned from the Miami Heat’s strong 9-6 start through the first 15 games of the season. It's getting dangerous back there. Although NBA veterans statistically dominate, most of their teams are far from competing for titles.

The Miami Heat, now 9-6 on the season, have backed up their words with actions. After talking throughout training camp about running a more uptempo offense, the

The Heat's young star in Ware has been deemed to have “generational” talent, as said by Norman Powell, after the team's 115-113 win over the New York Knicks, and once again spoke about the 2024 first-round pick Friday night. Powell would emphasize how Ware is “going to be a big piece” of what Miami is trying to accomplish this season.

In Wednesday’s victory over the Trail Blazers, Nikola Vucevic led the way for the Bulls as he recorded 27 points and eight rebounds, including the game-winning buzzer-beater, while Coby White added 25 points and seven rebounds of his own off the bench.

The short-handed Warriors took advantage of the Heat’s sluggish play, rallying from that early 16-point deficit to tie the score at 43 with 2:43 left in the second quarter. The Warriors entered halftime trailing the Heat by just four points despite shooting only 27.8% from the field and 6 of 27 (22.2%) from three-point range in the first half.

Usually an end-of-the-bench player, Johnson would play a career-high 30 minutes in the win over the Bulls, recording 14 points to go along with another career-high of 12 rebounds. Though shooting three of 10 from the field, he would be aggressive in getting to the line for six free-throw attempts, making all of them, plus he had a +24 on the floor.

Challenges? This Miami Heat team seemingly can’t get enough. Friday night, it was having to go without sidelined Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins and Nikola Jovic. It also was having to win to stay alive in the NBA Cup in-season tournament.

As the Miami Heat continue to build momentum in the Eastern Conference, a new trade possibility has emerged that could elevate the team to true contender status.