After 3 days of Bulls-worship and constant questions about Miami’s potential to even make this series close, The Heat reminded everyone why they’re here in the first place by beating the Chicago Bulls 85 – 75 tonight in Chicago.
Miami was led by Lebron James with 29 points, Wayde had 24, Bosh 10, and Udonis Haslem an enormous 13. Enormous because Haslem, who sat out most of the season due to injury, took over the fourth quarter and pumped some much needed life into Miami who had been playing an otherwise average game to that point.
It was then that Miami took over the lead and kept it most of the way going forward. The Bulls, however, kept it close. This game went right down to the wire until Lebron James took over in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter to seal the deal for Miami and send the series to South Beach knotted at 1-1.
The Bulls just couldn’t get into an offensive rhythm. Derrick Rose finished with 21 points on 23 shots (he made seven). Which is exactly the kind of stat line Chicago was sporting in those first and second round games when all the talk was about Chicago’s monotonous offense.
Deng had 13 points on 5-15 shooting (and 46 mins.), and no other Chicago player scored in double figures. After Chicago looked a bit better in the first half, the Heat defense was too suffocating in the second and they never got it going.
This is the exact same problem that plagued the Bulls in the first two rounds, as they can become too reliant on their defense to win games when their offense loses it’s plurality.
It should also be noted that Miami had a difficult time getting it going offensively as well. The first half was a grind for both teams, and it was Haslem’s efforts in the 3rd that really got them going.
It seems clear that this series is going to be a defensive slugfest. At 85-75 it was a very low-scoring game and I wouldn’t expect it to be the last of those.
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