I don't think it was Bogans' fault. I just think we don't do as well as we could because he's out there. Tonight, because Rose had an off night, our starting guards both gave us little. Normally it's one guard giving us little.
Then why even bring up Bogans? He actually had a pretty good game. If Rose doesn't throw the ball multiple times for gimme layups, the bulls win this one. All he needed to do was take care of the ball.
I bring him up because game after game, I see a guy like Joe Johnson either taking a rest on the defensive end, or able to double Rose. And we wonder why Rose had a bad quarter. In the Miami game, I commented a few times in the game thread about how Wade wasn't guarding Bogans at all. Bogans was running through the plays, from sideline to sideline and Wade was standing in the same place on the block near the baseline, even if Bogans was on the other side of the court entirely. Same thing in the Celtics game with Ray Allen - he got to rest 1/2 the time (on defense) with Bogans in the game. Last night, Johnson guarded Rose and it clearly bothered him. When Hinrich was in, he guarded Rose and Rose got to the rim pretty much at will. I look at Q1s of games and we tend to lead 25-23 or something like it. I'm quite convinced that with Korver out there, we lead 30-23 and the rest of the game is that much easier. Make sense?
Not really, but that's because while we watch the same games, we apparently watch different games. When he's in there, Bogans' scoring role is to stay on the perimeter and shoot the 3 when he's open. This is exactly what he's doing. I don't see Bogans passing up wide open shots so either his teammates aren't getting him the ball on time or he's being defended. My eyes tell me that it's the latter.
Pay attention at the :25 mark, 1:25 through 1:40 (the next two plays!) mark and tell me Bogans is being guarded. [video=youtube;hjq-PBGE6Sg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjq-PBGE6Sg[/video]
Thanks for the video. However, the only thing it proves to me is what I said earlier...we watch the same games, but we watch different games. I didn't see Bogans being ignored any more than I saw Deng being ignored. I didn't see any crazy double teams involving Bogans' defender. The Heat were playing typical NBA defense. They're not supposed to get inside their opponent's jock when the ball's on the other side. It ain't high school.
The first play it's hard to tell anything. The second play James Jones is guarding Deng's inbound pass attempt. I can't really tell who it is (Wade?) that's the guy who's supposed to be eyeing Bogans, but it's pretty clear the Heat are content to let him come open, and they have that guy defending the paint to prevent penetration and collect the rebound they think they're going to get from the jumper Rose launches up. The final play, James Jones again has his eye on Deng, but reads the play and knows Rose isn't gonna go to him, so he goes to Rose. Mike Miller is the guy not guarding Bogans at all. In fact, when Jones commits on Rose, Miller sees Deng and steps forward to face him.
Transplant, When I say they're not guarding him, I mean they are truly ignoring him to the point he starts a play on the left side, then runs thru the lane to the right, and his defender doesn't bother to follow at all. Teams don't aggressively guard Brewer either, but he gets open near the basket plenty.
The thing is, Thibs must recognize opposing defenses. He is a defense guru after all. It's not just Miami doing this, it's a lot of teams.
Wow, that game was a kick in the Balls. Much more painful than the Toronto game. I see it coming down to one play: Carlos Boozer's tough foul on Horford. I knew it was bad news as soon as he made it. From there Horford had a fire under his ass, and the Bulls' guards were afraid to drive to the hoop because they knew Horford was hunting for revenge. I'm not sure that was a stupid assessment. It's better to escape healthy with a loss than injured with a win. All the same . . .
