6 Thoughts
1) Wow, what a donnybrook! For an early season game, that was pretty intense - the Bulls play every possession of every game all season long like it's their last. It wasn't particularly well-played, and it was pretty poorly officiated, but the Heat survived a few bad offensive possessions late, two missed LeBron free throws, and two absolutely bizarre calls in the waning moments to win at home. What did we learn about the two teams? Nothing! Just like the regular season games last year won by Chicago. We already knew these were the best two teams in the East, by a mile, and they still are. Let's go!
2) LeBron was pretty amazing, right up until the moment with less than a minute to go, up two, when he missed two free throws (right after Derrick Rose had missed two of his own). Still, LeBron scored 35 on 12-23, had 11 rebounds, and 5 assists. Also, jumped over a guy (John Lucas) and dunked! Even more importantly, with Miami struggling to stop Derrick Rose halfway through the fourth quarter, they switched LeBron on to him, and shut him down. Rose stopped driving with the bigger LeBron on him, and Miami was able to regain some control defensively in the halfcourt. This is the same thing that happened in the playoffs last year - Derrick Rose is a phenomenally willful scorer. But LeBron is six inches taller than him. When a game gets in to crunch time, the odds favor Miami, because LeBron can check Rose, but Rose can't check him. Size counts.
3) Most interesting thing to come out of the game: the Bulls, who pride themselves on being absolutely relentless defensively, played a lot of zone against Miami. This was super-odd. A good defensive team - and Chicago is the best - is playing zone anyways. It's not like Richard Hamilton is guarding Dwyane Wade, and there's no help, and if Dwyane gets by him, it's an automatic layup. Big guys are always help-conscious on a good defensive team - that's zone. In the first half, they abandoned it pretty quickly when Mike Mil-lar hit a triple, then Dwyane Wade cut into the zone's middle, got a pass from LeBron, and found a cutting Joel Anthony for free throws. In the second half, the Bulls went to it again, with similarly disappointing results. It was weird to see such a fierce, proud defensive team go to a defense which, essentially, is for girls. I'm guessing that (virulent homophobe) Joakim Noah suggested it.
4) Best play of the game: you mean besides when LeBron jumped over another 6' human being and dunked? Probably when after LeBron missed his second free throw inside of a minute to go and Dwyane Wade slapped the offensive rebound to Chris Bosh, while one of the refs blew his whistle because the Bulls bench was calling a timeout (which is against the rules since they didn't have, you know, the ball), and then the refs huddled and decided that instead of Miami ball, there would be a jump ball at center court with like 20 seconds to go and Miami leading by 2. Both teams could select anyone to jump - LeBron went to jump, Dwyane and Chris Bosh (great game: 24 and 12) stood in behind him, and all three of them told Mario Chalmers, the Heat's best free throw shooter, to go stand fifteen feet behind Dwyane and Chris, who obviously planned to serve as a shield, and for LeBron to tap the ball hard back to the wide open Chalmers. Meanwhile, the Bulls are trying to decide whom to have jump, and there was general jostling going on, and Emcee Chalmers kept walking back up to the circle. And each time, Dwyane AND Chris AND LeBron would point farther back, and be like, "No, stay back there, LeBron is going to tap it back to you," and Chalmers would go back there, but then he would come back up towards the circle and be, like, "How about up here," and they would be like, "NOOOOOO!!!" Finally, he went back there, LeBron won the tap easily, and hit it right to Chalmers, who got fouled. LeBron and Dwyane and Chris never actually do anything collectively. You'll see Dwyane and LeBron talk a lot on the court, and Dwyane will talk to Chris a lot, but LeBron doesn't talk much to Chris, and the three of them never all talk. This time, they all talked, designed a strategy in crunch time, and then couldn't get it implremented because Mario Chalmers wouldn't listen to them! LeBron, Dwyane, and Chris: Next time you make a collective effort to design a key play in crunch time, don't prominently involve Emcee Chalmers! Emcee: when LeBron AND Dwyane AND Chris tell you to do something? Just do it! That should clear things up. (epilogue: this led to another insane call - Chalmers missed the second free throw and in the loose ball scrum, Derrick Rose grabbed the ball while staggering backwards, went about 8 steps without dribbling, and then was awarded another timeout - these refs loved giving the Bulls timeouts! - then he went down to the other end, shoved Udonis Haslem to the floor with a shoulder, missed an eight-footer, and we won. The End!)
5) How your eyes (and emotions) can lie to you: Great friend of the blog Snets and I were emailing after the game. We both felt like the Bulls dominated the glass, killed us on second chances, and that this is continuously happening to us this season. At one point in the third quarter, ABC showed the offensive rebounding totals: Miami 6, Bulls 6. If you had asked me at that moment, I would have guessed: Miami 6, Bulls 60. And I felt we got pummeled on the glass down the stretch, too. But the final totals? Miami 12 offensive rebounds (13 if you count the one Dwyane and Chris yanked which got wiped out by a phantom timeout); Chicago 12 offensive rebounds. Miami 48 total rebounds, Chicago 47. I think an offensive rebound is so discouraging: you play tough defense, you get a stop, then the other team gets another chance, and you are like, "Je-sus." (Or, "Dammit, Chris!!!!") But when your team gets an offensive putback, you are like, "Yeah, why wouldn't we do that? No big deal." So you feel like you are getting killed there, but you aren't. Something to keep an eye on.
6) Movie review: "Ideas of March." Wait, what? Oh, "Ides of March." Review: Ryan Gosling! RYAN GOSLING! The end!
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Back at it tomorrow against New Orleans. If you need me before then, I'll be re-creating Emcee Chalmers' refusal to go where LeBron, Dwyane, and Chris were telling him to go, with M.Minutos as LeBron, O.Minutos as Dwyane, and poor P.Minutos as Chris. Starring me as Emcee Chalmers, the role I was born to play (by the way, I've already done this six times, and the game only ended an hour ago)! See you tomorrow!
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