One play in the Bulls’ loss to the Pistons on Wednesday demonstrated why forward Matas Buzelis is such a tantalizing player.

In the third quarter, he blocked forward Paul Reed’s shot and chased down a quick outlet pass from guard Tre Jones to the right corner. After he corralled the pass, Buzelis quickly set his feet behind the three-point line and made the shot.

Buzelis has great two-way potential, which is partly why coach Billy Donovan brought him along incrementally last season.

While Buzelis’ offensive game is more developed, his defensive improvement has been impressive after he took his lumps as a rookie.

His defensive awareness is starting to catch up to his athletic talent; it’s especially noticeable when he’s the low man in pick-and-roll coverage. Buzelis tied a career high with four blocks Wednesday.

“He’s seeing it happen before it’s happening, and he’s pulling in [and] putting himself in a position to make those plays,” Donovan said.

“That’s probably been the biggest growth I’ve seen in him so far. Defensively, there are times where we talked about some of the isolation stuff, where he gets overwhelmed physically, which he’ll get better at. But the one thing about his shot-blocking is he can’t be there to block shots if he’s not there.”

Donovan wanted Buzelis to grasp the less glamorous aspects of the NBA game — boxing out, running the floor hard — before assuming a major offensive role.

After one shootaround, Buzelis practiced post defense as part of his quest to become a well-rounded, two-way player.

But it became a necessity for the Bulls to have him take on a larger offensive load after injuries to Josh Giddey and Coby White.

Donovan said Buzelis is playing more decisively, but there’s even more offensive responsibility he can assume.

“As great as [Jones] is at taking care of the ball and as much as [guard Ayo Dosunmu] has improved, there are times — with their size, with coverages that are aggressive, them seeing over or around coverages — that Matas can do that for us,’’ Donovan said.

“He’s got the size where, if it is an aggressive coverage, he has the ability to kind of see it and throw it over the top a little bit more.”

White’s status

Before the game was postponed Thursday, White (right calf) was going to return to the lineup against the Heat after missing the front end of the back-to-back. Donovan said that White’s minutes restriction would remain in the 24- to 26-minute range.

“Everything coming out of the last game was totally fine,” Donovan said of White. “There [were] no setbacks in his workouts and things that he was doing.

‘‘[The medical staff] is going to try to slowly start to move [White’s minutes] up — hopefully relatively soon.”

Injury report

Guard Kevin Huerter was set to miss the postponed game against Miami with back tightness. Donovan said Huerter felt the injury during the game in Detroit on Wednesday, and it didn’t improve after the game or in the morning.