By K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune reporter

Wednesday morning, hours before the Bulls applied the brakes to the Heat’s run at history, Tom Thibodeau was asked if he had mentioned their 27-game winning streak.

“What streak?” Thibodeau said.

On a night when the only Derrick Rose appearance came via a bobblehead doll and Joakim Noah, Richard Hamilton and Marco Belinelli also sat with injuries, the Bulls made history disappear.

The second-longest winning streak in North American major professional sports league history is over thanks to a 101-97 victory that, out of nowhere, rekindled talk of a lengthy Bulls postseason run.

Heat, meet grit.