Here is what stupid Bulls fans will say about the loss to
the Miami Heat on Thursday:
“You gotta fight with these guys…don’t we have someone who
can knock Wade or LeBron outta’ the air?”
“We need an ENFORCER!”
“Why does Love Smith just stand there on the sideline; he
should grab a player by the facemask!”
Hell, check out Bulls.com and you’ll see some of this
lowest-common-denominator rhetoric that so easily oozes from many fans’ brains.
To the contrary, the Bulls need Derrick Rose to be healthy,
they need Rip Hamilton to actually hit a jumper, Carlos Boozer needs to do
something other than try and hit fall-away jumpers to pander to his children in
the crowd, C.J. Watson needs to stop turning the ball over and the Bulls need
to outrebound the Heat.
That’s a wonderful response to Dwyane Wade’s antics or
whatever cheap-shottery you think the Heat were doling out.
The Bulls are dangerously close to turning over the top seed
in the playoffs (how much does that Washington Wizards loss at home hurt now?),
which means a face-off with the red-hot New York Knicks and a second round bid
with the Indiana Pacers. The top seed would get the slumping Philidephia 76ers
and a second round meeting with the ho-hum Boston Celtics or the meh Atlanta
Hawks.
Oh, and you get home court advantage against the Heat if you
retain the top seed. So, yes, these are dangerous times for a team that is at
once trying to win games and get its best player healthy and conditioned for
the playoffs.
I’m trying to be optimistic about the Bulls chances, but
they’re hoping for too much to go right. Hamilton hasn’t shown me he can play
in important situations. He’s either sitting or missing jumpers. His exchange
with Wade was humorous but he didn’t really show he can stay with one of the
game’s best players on offense.
And this isn’t a fan
rant, but how was Wade not ejected from the game? That was a blatant shot
and shove to the ground right in front of the refs. The officials are too
afraid to chuck him, but James Jones could sit in the locker room for a shove
to Noah.
Wade is one of my favorite players in the NBA, but no one in
the game bitches more to the officials and seems hellbent on drawing calls
within his offensive game. I also saw LeBron bitch to the officials for being whistled
on Joakim Noah, but when the cameras honed in, it was clear he hammered Noah.
My point being: I think Miami wanted this one, They’re close
to stealing the top seed and an easier path to the Finals. They’re the
favorites to win the East and this was as close to playoff ball as you’ll see
from the Heat in the regular season.
Speaking of LeBron James, I thought he showed why he is the
best player in the game. He relented offensively in the second half, but he
played nearly a complete game on both ends of the court. By the way, as fans
continue to find reasons to bitch, that screen he set on John Lucas II was
clean and a good basketball play. Lucas ran into a wall and didn’t expect it. Blame
Luol Deng for that one.
In football that’s a left guard being pulled on a trap and
clearing out a linebacker for his running back. In hockey—well maybe I shouldn’t
go here—that’s a hard check against the board to free the puck.
I continue to wonder how much Carlos Boozer will matter in a
Heat series since he seems so fragile at times.
The same goes for Kyle Korver
and Joakim Noah, though Noah played a fabulous game. He continues to be one of
the most frustrating players on this squad. In this matchup, he was exploiting
the Heat’s lack of size, in the playoffs he might be sitting for the entire
fourth quarter.
To me, he’s a player who largely plays on reputation and
seems to titillate TV producers for his spazzy style and odd hair choice. His
game is irregular and fabulous in spurts. I can’t imagine that he’ll retain
this level of play in the playoffs, but if he does, the Bulls are in much
better position to beat the Heat because it puts so much more pressure on the
defense to rebound than to trap.
This is also moot if Derrick Rose is wearing one of those full-body
casts that we see in the movies after a second-round showing with the In-EANA
Pacers, as Tyler Hansbrough says. The path to a rematch just got more
complicated.
Contact Mike Mitchell
at michaelkennethmitchell@gmail.com.
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