1) I'm not gonna lie: I thought that would be a lot harder. I mean, the Bulls are sooo tough, they talk sooo much smack, and the Heat were on the second night of a road back-to-back in Chicago, those ferocious fans, in a national tv showdown - according to the Bulls, this is what they live for. You know, I really, really expected a war, an absolute donnybrook! But, no, it was super-easy! Wow, I really did not expect that!...Buhhh-lowww-outtt!!! Blah blah blah, Bulls: blah. blah. blah! Nine wins in a row for Miami, but Mike Miller is still sick, and we only made 3 triples (why waste them?), so once again we can not let it fly. C'mon, c'mon, leggo!
2) Here's how the game went: the Bulls would walk the ball up the court at a glacial pace because they are scared to run with the Heat, they would pass it around for a while, then Miami would either steal it; or Joakim Noah would pass the ball into a teammate's shins, then the Heat would steal it. They would bring the ball up the court, KJ James would survey the scene and either stick a jumper (11-15 for 26 points, and one of the misses was a running left-handed triple at a quarter buzzer); or find a wide open teammate for a bucket (Wade - 20 points; Bosh - 12 points; Walter Ray Allen - 11 points). Miami roasted the vaunted Bulls defense for 50.7% from the floor. Only the Heat's tired legs, which led to some general turnover sloppiness, kept this game even remotely competitive - Miami had the Bulls on the verge of a blowout all night, before finally putting them away halfway through the fourth quarter.
3) Miami's defense was good, and the Bulls offense is pretty bad to begin with, so Chicago shot 37% from the floor and had 26 turnovers. In a related story, today was the trade deadline. Miami made only one move: clearing a roster space by sending Dexter Pittman to Memphis. But it was a positive day anyways because some of their primary competition in the East tried to add last second pieces for the playoffs, and failed. Chicago and Indiana were looking for shooting, especially J.J. Redick, who ended up going from Orlando to Milwaukee, where he really can't do much damage. That's a win for Miami. Chicago and Indiana struggle to score, and Redick is one of the better shooters in the league. Miami's offense is better than it has been in either of the two previous seasons - they have more shooters, they move the ball better, KJ is simply a better basketball player now. And in games like tonight, where they show up and make an effort defensively, they are clearly one of the two or three toughest teams to score on. For teams like Chicago and Indiana, seven games over two weeks against this team looks like a tough task right now - tough to see how either one can score enough to beat Miami 4 out of 7.
4) Of course, one thing that would instantly make the Bulls better is the return of mouth-breathing Derrick Rose, who has been out all season with a knee injury. Even with him, their offense has never been very efficient, but he is a volume shooter and scorer - it certainly can't get worse than it was tonight. Rose has been practicing for a couple of weeks now, and all interested parties must be very excited about his impending return. Or not: his brother and "manager," Reggie Rose, excoriated Bulls management in the press today, claiming that they don't do enough to help his brother. He said it better than I can, here you go:
Joakim Noah is a great player. Luol Deng is a great player. But you need more than that. You have to put together pieces to your main piece. The players can only do so much. It's up to the organization to make them better.
Yes, yes! That's what I always say: you have to put together pieces to your main piece! Two other All-Stars besides your brother isn't enough - most good teams have 6 or 7 All-Stars! And by the way, the other guys on the Bulls, the ones you are publicly criticizing for not being good enough? Those are the guys that are, you know, actually out there playing, unlike your brother. Didn't he have a whole Addidas campaign talking about how fast he would be back? I don't mean, like, now - I mean, months and months ago? I thought I remembered seeing an ad like that quite a while back. Tick tock, Derrick Rose, tick tock...Good god, Derrick Rose and his brother are an embarrassment to that franchise, and the whole city of Chicago. Those fans must really hate having him as their best player. On the other hand, at least his brother looks exactly like Dr. Dre!
5) Well, great friend of the blog Snets has been giving some thought to the rumors that KJ James will opt out of his contract after next season and go back to Cleveland. I wouldn't blame him if he did, and he already won a title for us, so I don't want to hear any complaining if it happens. Here's what Snets emailed me this morning:
I wonder what our lives will be like post LBJ - you got to figure that Wade is going to look around albeit probably not very hard - Bosh will probably leave - Miller will be gone - Lewis and Battier probably retired, Allen retired - Spo will get fired mid season without Riley who will be gone, well we'll still probably have Chalmers
Wait - we will still have Chalmers? Sounds great, I'm in!!!
6) You know what the biggest problem with the Twilight movies is? Those Indian dudes aren't werewolves! Those are giant, magical wolves, yes, that's true, but they aren't werewolves. Werewolves have wolf heads and paws, and hairy bodies, but they still walk upright and can talk, like Michael J. Fox in "Teen Wolf." Ummm, duh? These Indian dudes don’t talk once they turn into wolves, and they prowl on all fours. Isn't that the whole point of a werewolf? Part-human, part-wolf? If you totally turn into a wolf, you aren't a werewolf, you're just a crazy Indian dude who turns into a wolf. Seems fairly obvious, hard to see how the filmmakers messed that up. Frustrating when people don't take their craft seriously enough…
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Again, just to clarify: tonight was a super-easy win. They won't all be this easy, I assure you! We will be back Saturday in Philly, then in Miami on Sunday for Cleveland. Four games in five nights, brutal..for me...Look for me before Saturday if you need me, but don't waste your time looking for Reggie Rose: Reggie Rose is dead, he's locked up in my basement! See you Saturday!
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