The Bulls feel a ‘fake whistle’ may have cost them a win at the end of Sunday’s game in Miami. With 16.8 seconds left Lebron James was shooting two free throws, to try and seal a win for the Heat, who had a 94-93 lead. Lebron missed both free throws but a referee mistakenly blew their whistle. The players walked around in confusion, some thinking a time-out was called for the Bulls before Dwayne Wade came down with a rebound even though Wade was out of bounds. The officials talked at mid-court and threw up a jump-ball, that was recovered by the Heat’s Mario Chalmers, who was fouled immediately. Chalmers made one of two free throws, that eventually won the game for the Heat. When talking about the controversial play after the game, Coach Tom Thibodeau said ‘I’ll just leave it alone,’ followed by ‘all you have to do is look at the tape.’ Joakim Noah also agreed that the play cost the Bulls the game.

"I thought it was a whistle in the crowd. That was a bad sequence. But things like that happen in basketball games. It's unfortunate that it happened in such an important moment in the game. D. Wade's clearly out of bounds on the play at the end. For them to get the possession back in that situation (is) tough. It happens. We had our opportunities. No excuses.” Noah had a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Star point guard Derrick Rose takes the blame for the loss, even thought he put up 34 points against an intimidating Heat defense, which is the most a player has scored on the Heat all year.
“It was definitely tough. I’ve been in those situations before and knocked them down, but to miss both ... I let my team down. All I can do is learn from it.” Rose also missed a floater in the lane with 3.7 seconds left that would have tied the game up. When asked if he thinks it will ‘haunt’ Rose for a while, guard ‘Rip’ Hamilton remarked he’s a player with a lot of pride.
“That’s the great thing about him,” Hamilton said, “He takes pride in every possession. He takes pride in every game.”
On another hand, Forward Luol Deng, who said he would play in the match-up with the Heat, was on the bench for his third straight game. Although Deng and guard C.J. Watson sat out, Joakim Noah was very confident going into the game.

“We feel like we have enough to win. We're just going to go out there and compete as hard as possible.”
Coach Thibodeau said Deng is ‘very close’ to getting back in the line-up.

"The big thing is, we want to make sure he feels good about playing. He still has to take contact on it. He's doing a lot more without contact. We want him to be comfortable. He's getting closer. As long as he's moving in the right direction we're pleased with that." Deng is expected to play sometime this week.