NBA Teams Allowed To Continue Playing After Combined 20-Point First Quarter

The Heat and Bulls are playing this afternoon in Chicago. Probably no one should be watching this game—the Heat are meh, and the Bulls are whoa that milk belongs in the trash, man—but there are few options on a football Sunday if you’re an NBA fan, and this was the only 3:30 p.m. game on today’s slate. Your punishment for the crime of tuning in was a first quarter won by the Chicago Bulls, by the nightmarish score of 13-7.

Hilariously, this was not the lowest scoring quarter in NBA history (although it certainly felt like it): in 2015 the 25-win Magic and 17-win Knicks combined for just 15 points in the second quarter of a meaningless April game, each team’s third-to-last game of the season. I am told ... yes, it appears those teams were also allowed to finish the full 48 minutes of scheduled basketball. An outrage.

The Bulls and Heat erupted for 67 combined points in the second quarter, and the Heat lead the Bulls by three at halftime.