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Wednesday night, the Chicago Bulls will try to extend their lead over the Miami Heat in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals to 2-0, which would give them a huge edge when the series shifts to Miami later in the week. One way they can do that is by cutting down on their turnovers. Sure enough, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reports, via Twitter, limiting turnovers was a Bulls talking point after Wednesday's shootaround. Tweets Johnson, "Heat scored 14 points on 9 first-half miscues in Game 1---and 2 pts on only [sic] in 2nd hf."
Are turnovers a problem for the Bulls? And how dangerous are the Heat in capitalizing off those turnovers?
Can a team have a good rebounding night the same way it can have a good shooting night? Is boxing out contagious? Can one get in a rhythm on the boards?
I found myself asking these questions after the Bulls unexpectedly crushed the Heat 103-82 in Game 1. The top-ranked rebounding team in the NBA in 2011 (+5.74 rebound differential) was good after all, but third-ranked Miami was no slouch either. Surely the Heat had just had an off night on the glass, the same an anything else.
Turns out, Miami hasn't been able to rebound yet against the Bulls, pulling down 30, 39, 30 and 33 in four tries despite averaging almost 43 per game this season. At some point, you have to say the Bulls have the Heat's number on the boards. Game 2, which tips off at 7:30 p.m. Central on TNT, may be the moment the scales tip.
None of this is a revelation, as Miami was never going to to out-rebound Chicago. but instead make up the difference with offensive efficiency and their fear-of-god transition game with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. But if the Heat can't even get their Porsche out of the driveway, most nights the Bulls are going to win. Collecting 19 offensive rebounds is an insane statistic that happens in high school and a handful of college games, not on the professional level.
Granted, Lebron and especially Wade are going to come back with a vengeance Wednesday night, their pride wounded and their team in an early hole. If Taj Gibson really is a hardhat/lunchpail guy as Stacey King says, he better wear the hat out on the court because Wade is going to be looking for dunk revenge every time he's in the same area code. Wade's a Chicago guy, an NBA champion and the head of the Miami Heat snake. Lebron is the most talented player in the NBA, but Wade will be the one to watch out for. He was Derrick Rose before there was a Derrick Rose.
Beyond the rebounding differential, Chicago shot the lights out from behind the arc in Game 1, hitting 48% of their shots compared to their 36% average. Extra possessions are one thing, but when the Bulls are actually converting them at a solid rate? Good luck to you, sir.
Strategically, the biggest adjustments in a series usually come between Games 1 and 2, and this is no different. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has the added decision of figuring out who he'll dress, after activating Jamaal Magloire in Game 1 and leaving big men Erik Dampier and Zydrunas Ilgauskas on the bench. As well as that gut move worked out, it would be surprising not to see either Dampier or Ilgauskas wearing warmups when the Heat come out of the tunnel next.
Coach Tom Thibodeau beat his counterpart almost as soundly as their respective teams did Sunday, using Gibson to negate the Heat's advantage whenever they went small, and debuting a Rose/Kyle Korver pick and roll in Game 1 that created open looks each time it was used. Spoelstra's (and of course his players') adjustments will be fun to watch, as these teams with equally opposite talents match up once again. Pick and roll defense will likely go under the screen again and dare Rose to shoot threes and long twos, hoping that he has an off night. More exciting to watch will be the balance the Heat strike between leaving men back to rebound and running off of misses. If Miami starts getting easy buckets on the break, Thiibodeau may have call off the dogs on the offensive glass and leave a big man back instead.
All of this strategy talk shouldn't diminish what the Bulls inner triangle of Rose, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah were able to do in the first game. The Bulls are hard to beat when all three have good games, and they had great ones on Sunday, to say nothing of Gibson, Carlos Boozer and Ronnie Brewer.
If the Bulls are going to win, they need to continue to own the glass, win the bench battle and keep James and Wade out of the paint. Miami will be dangerous if they start creating turnovers and converting easy buckets off of them.
Wade and James missed shots they normally make in Game 1, so expect their averages to return to the median and for the Bulls to face their fiercest challenge yet in these playoffs. The way they've looked their last two games, they may very well be up to the task. But make no mistake, the Bulls will have to earn this one.
Bulls 75, Heat 85 - Ripe For The Taking, Chicago Blows Game 2 To Even Series
The Bulls will kick themselves for losing this game, although probably not as hard as I kicked my coffee table after watching Chicago blow easy shots and multiple free throws before coming entirely unglued on offense late in the fourth quarter in Wednesday night's 85-75 loss.
It was one of those dreadful shooting nights for the Bulls (which come more frequently than they should for a team with championship aspirations), shooting 34.5% from the floor, 3-20 from three and worst of all, 61% from the free throw line. This is the frustration of the Bulls, in that on the nights when shots fall they seem nearly unstoppable, only to come back a few days later unable to hit the broad side of a barn.
Credit the Miami defense, who kept Derrick Rose out of the lane and stymied any chance for the Bulls to establish an inside-out rhythm and get the ball moving from side-to-side. Rose had 21 points on 7-23 shooting and he wasn't the only Bull to struggle to find the range. Luol Deng was 5-15 for 13 points, Carlos Boozer hit 3-10 including several missed lay-ups, causing me to make a red, handprint-shaped mark on my face, and Kyle Korver, the Bulls only other consistent threat on offense, had three points on 1-7 shooting and was consistently targeted on defense by Miami.
The story of the game for the Heat was the return of Udonis Haslem, who had 13 points but more importantly provided the blue collar effort on the interior that Miami lacked in Game 1. Once he entered the game the Bulls dominance on the offensive glass came to a screeching halt and the momentum of the game turned. LeBron James carried his team offensively in the fourth, finishing with 29 points, ten rebounds and five assists and Dwyane Wade chipped in 24 points of his own.
The Bulls made a late third/early fourth quarter run with a Rose/Ronnie Brewer/Deng/Taj Gibson/Omer Asik lineup, which clamped down defensively and kept the Heat from scoring for nearly 12 minutes. Asik especially was a rock on the interior, defending the paint about a million times better than Joakim Noah, who was, frankly, ineffective on the defensive end tonight. On more than one occasion coach Tom Thibodeau chastised him for a poor play or missed block out, finally benching him before the fourth quarter. Asik might have stayed in for the duration, but was cut on the chin late in the fourth, putting Noah back in the game. Noah played well enough on offense early in the game with a nice jump hook and a beautiful high-low feed to Boozer, but the Bulls need him to anchor the defense first if they are to succeed in this series.
Ultimately, the Bulls had a shot to take this game despite their awful shooting night, but for the first time this season were out-rebounded by the Heat 45-41. Chicago still had a stellar offensive rebounding game with 17 (largely inflated by all the brick-laying), but struggled mightily on the defensive end, notching only 24 boards to the Heat's 35. Late in the fourth, after defending the entire shot clock, the Bulls could not secure a rebound when they needed it most.
It's a tough loss to swallow, as the Bulls seemed set to take the game late despite their off-night on the offensive end. Unfortunately, the Heat became the aggressors late, getting to all the loose balls and absolutely discombobulating the Chicago offense. With the series tied at 1-1, the Bulls have lost the home court advantage and will need to find a way to win one in Miami.
With an opportunity to grab control of the series and put a team with questionable resolve on its heels, the Bulls ceded the driver's seat on Wednesday night. They'll have to earn it back by beating a re-energized team that hasn't lost at home yet this postseason.
Easy as they've made it seem at times, the Bulls still prefer to do things the hard way. Such is the way of youth.
May 18 11:08p by Right_Field_Sucks