Miami Heat’s 27-game winning streak snapped by Chicago Bulls

Grant Park was empty Thursday morning in Chicago just as it is most Thursday mornings. Maybe some runners and some pigeons and a few stray walkers, but nothing more. There certainly wasn’t a stage and a microphone and 50,000 people wearing red and white singing the words to the Bulls-themed version of “YMCA” -- and yes, that is something that exists.

But you’ll have to excuse Bulls fans for a moment if they might have felt compelled to show up at the South Loop park, the site of the ‘90s championship parades Johnny “Red” Kerr once deemed an ’annual’ occurrence.

The Heat lost last night.

It’s the first time in 52 days we can write that sentence, and after 27 straight wins, it was a little shocking to see them fall behind the Bulls late in the fourth quarter Wednesday and NOT have LeBron take over on both ends of the court, put together an insane comeback, and leaves Miami looking more invincible than ever. But it didn’t happen.

As Ben Cafardo, a rep for ESPN, told me, the Heat are still the “defending champs and one of the most popular teams in the sport, even without the streak.”

Representatives for both ESPN and Turner Sports confirmed to me that both The Worldwide Leader and NBA TV (part of NBA Digital, the NBA’s extensive cross-platform portfolio of digital assets jointly managed by the NBA and Turner Sports) will keep upcoming extra Miami Heat broadcasts, despite their 27-game winning streak ending last night. The Chicago Bulls snapped the second-best run of victories in NBA history, with a 101-97 win Tuesday over Miami at the United Center. ESPN televised that game.

I’ve never been moved by comparisons between historical feats. Lord help me if the History Channel adds a show where a Chip Bayless argues whether Bunker Hill was more important than Lexington and Concord with a current Army officer. You make history, you get remembered. The Lakers made history. We bring them up every now and then. The Heat fell short, but it’s pretty obvious we’ll be remembering this collection of players, and particularly No. 6, for a very long time. We don’t need to bestow imaginary honors to assure that. It will happen.

Folks can spend their time however they like, but there are so many inane things in sports already that I’m pretty opposed to creating more inane things to worry about. The drive to deem something the most [adjective] [noun] ever can be explained away as a method by which we appreciate the great feats of the here and now. But in my view, it’s a lazy way to appreciate the great fears of the here and now. Document what’s happening, dig deep into the narrative and the stat sheet, analyze the difficulty of achieving these things. But please don’t immediately turn to a scorecard to compare a current great feat with the gold standard of this feat from the past. You do that, and you remind me of Drake in that commercial where he claims the 2010-11 Heat are the greatest team ever.

And, just for good measure, here’s the .GIF:

I feel bad for you, LeBron. I really, really do.

Read more at Blog a Bull and Hot Hot Hoops.

As you’ve probably heard by now, the Miami Heat’s incredible 27-game win streak came to a crushing end against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.

So you’re probably wondering what any of that has to do with why the Heat lost. Here’s why it matters:

And on offense Chicago will also miss his 4.1 offensive rebounds per game that could have paid dividends against a small Miami frontline.

• The Celtics and their next generation GM