Game one started off scary for Bulls fans, with the Heat getting a few quick steals and dunks. Rose looked more like a careless Russell Westbrook than the steady MVP and the ball seemed to be bouncing Miami's way. But the Bulls quickly composed themselves, primarily through solid defense and hustle plays and were tied at half.
About midway through the third quarter the Bulls went on a quick spurt to change a small deficit into a ten point lead. Then they maintained that lead until late in the fourth, where they blew it open to seal the game. It is common to see a situation like that in NBA games. As the fourth quarter shrinks, teams down by ten or so start to take riskier shots, trying to get back in. They either make them and create a close game at the end or wind up losing by more. So, when you see headlines like "Bulls Crush Heat" keep in mind that this game was basically even the entire way except for that short burst in the third quarter and the pull-away at the end.
Still, that doesn't make it any less sweet. Clearly, this was the Bulls team from game six against Atlanta and not the fumbling goofballs that had so much trouble with the first two series. They played hard the entire way, particularly on defense and while rebounding. One could argue that the second chance opportunities that the Bulls got with offensive rebounds was the difference in the game. Outside of getting caught in the air on some fakes (and then fouling) the Bulls did a fabulous job on James and Wade. Bosh had a big scoring game, but I think a lot of those were due to excellent passing by James when the Bulls doubled up on him.
I basically started this blog to vent about the stupid things the Bulls seemed to be always doing. This year, I'm suddenly seeing them correcting just about everything I point out. A lot of credit for that has to go to Thibodeau. I complained about Deng's defense, toughness and shot selection for years and suddenly he improves on all three. More recently, I complained about court time for Boozer and now we have our second game with no Boozer in the fourth quarter. Mind you, he wasn't awful while he was in there, although he did get one of his infuriating defensive 3 second technicals.
Which brings me to The Tajinator (*nickname patent pending)!! Taj was a monster out there in game one! He gave us a poster jam over Wade for a three point play. He blocked James on a drive while guarding him one-on-one. And just to make the evening perfect for the fans, he had a highlight one-handed put-back jam near the end of the game. Truly, if you didn't see that last one, go to youtube right now, search and be amazed.
Miami is vulnerable in the frontcourt, particularly with Big Z and Haslem nursing injuries, so having our bigs play well is one of the keys to the series. Noah was all intensity and motion. Taj was amazing. Asik was very solid, not fouling as much, as he is prone to do. Boozer was still stupid, but he did a lot of things right as well, such as rebounding. He had a couple baskets directly off of offensive rebounds and this is something we have too rarely seen from him.
One thing Miami tries to do in order to offset this weakness is to go small and force a Bulls big man to come out on a three point shooter. This worked a bit for them, with Jones knocking down some three point shots over slowly closing Bulls bigs. But the Bulls adjusted their rotation to minimize this and I think more than made up for it with the rebounding advantage. This is going to be a mini-battle throughout the series as both teams make adjustments to take advantage of mismatches.
It's a great start for the Bulls but I can't help thinking that the Bulls must win their home games in order to take this series. We've seen this team lose focus during the previous two series. It is best to keep Miami on their heels. Once they get their cocky swagger back then they play the way they opened game one and the Bulls will have big trouble with that. Bulls need to use their depth to keep up defensive pressure at all times. If I were Miami's coach, I'd tell James and Wade to drive more, looking for fouls, kickouts for open threes, or easy baskets. The Bulls need to be ready for that.
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