The Heat, in their first game in Miami for these Eastern Conference Finals, defeated the Chicago Bulls Sunday night 96 – 85. The Heat take a 2-1 lead in the series and improve to an impressive 7-0 at home in these playoffs.
The Heat controlled the tempo much of this game, but Chicago stubbornly hung around behind arguably Carlos Boozer’s best effort this postseason (26 pts, 17 reb.). After Miami close the 1st quarter with an 18-15 lead, the two teams both scored 25 points each in the two subsequent quarters.
For Miami, their undeniable offensive leader Sunday night was Chris Bosh. Bosh went for 34 points and five rebounds on 13-of-18 shooting, while Lebron James had 22 pts, six rebounds, and 10 assists, and Wade going for 17 with nine rebounds. But Bosh, who was at times automatic from the field, was the story.
But all of this seems to dwarf the biggest factor in this series: defense. With Chicago and Miami playing this physical and this intense on defense, I wouldn’t be surprised if neither team eclipsed 100 points the rest of this series. And of course, this tenacity does not come without jawing, as Bosh and Taj Gibson had their words, along with Wade and Brewer.
On paper, Chicago is faced with an enormous offensive pickle in this series. How does a team with just one legitimate scoring threat going to score enough points to win four games against a defense as intense as the Miami Heat? Carlos Boozer had something to say about that tonight showing some signs of the reason Chicago picked him up in the first place.
However, it still wasn’t enough to beat the well-balanced attack of the Heat, and it’s getting to a point where it’s reasonable to believe that all else being equal, the Bulls may be pinning their chances for this series on the Heat’s big three all playing sub-par games four different times in this series — the chance of which looks scarce, despite the Game 1 victory where Bosh went for over 30 as well.
It is rare that I would get this far in a Chicago Bulls recap without mentioning Derrick Rose, but tonight it happens because he was simply quiet. Rose went for 20 pts., five rebounds, and five assists on 8-of-19 shooting. He never took over the game and only got to the charity stripe for 3 free throws Sunday night. It goes without saying that the Bulls will need more than that from their MVP to pull this one out and earn themselves a ticket to the finals. Thea Heat defense deserves a lot of the credit for his quiet turn, but Rose must find a way around it.
You can’t help coming out of this game feeling like the Bulls are a little lost out there and back to the problems they faced in Rounds 1 and 2. But Chicago has proven us wrong before, and they’ll hope to do so again Tuesday night in Miami.
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