Wow. Boozer with the steal, he saves it from going OB, then gets the offensive board and scores. Huuuuuge play. Bulls down 1 after Rose gets the and1! Bulls with the stop, Boozer the board and outlet to a streaking Rose, he's fouled, And misses them both. Noooooooooooooooooo
Rose had a good enough look, but it didn't go in. Boozer had good position but the rebound was long, over his head. Rip was wide open in the corner...
Gutsy effort . We were Undermanned and outgunned ...committed too many turnovers and didn't master the long rebound and didn't pick up in transition defense as best we can.....room for improvement but we can and will go toe o oe win these guys in the Eastern Conference Final again. The Champion this year will be out of the Bulls and the Heat
Wow. This is why we love basketball, right? I can't imagine a more entertaining rivalry. We're really lucky. Have to agree about Boozer. The Heat are so long and fast that all of his jumpers are off balance and he doesn't hit off-balance jumpers. He still made a number of big plays on defense and on the boards and that's definitely worth something. Korver is the same as Boozer to an extent. I've noticed that he doesn't really have good and bad shooting games, just games where the Bulls feed him in the middle of his body when he's in rhythm and games where they don't. That matter's less with Korver than Boozer, because at least with Korver there are going to be plays where the Bulls feed him correctly, when Boozer is never going to be able to get his shot off. Not having Watson really hurt us today. It looked to me like Rose ran out of gas in the last six minutes, but whatever, he was phenomenal and Watson may have given the game away too. I'm not taking a lot away from this game that I didn't already know. The Heat are a good team; the Bulls are a good team; this is a good rivalry; and we're lucky as basketball fans to have a rooting interest.
Boozer was in foul trouble, and still almost a double double. He took just 10 shots and made 5 (2 assists, 2 steals, too). He was a beast at the end. Taj had a tough assignment, guarding LeBron a lot. He finished with 8 points, 4 boards, and a block in more PT than Booz. What we need is for Booz to come out and play all game like he did at the end, and stay out of foul trouble.
You know Denny if we were Heat fans, we would begin every post game thread with the question: Why didn't the team funnel the ball to Bosh more? He's pretty darn awesome, and the fact that he is somehow viewed as the reason the Heat are not successful is reflective of the local media/fan base's lack of basketball knowledge. It's easy to say Boozer should stay out of foul trouble, but it's kind of inevitable when his matchup is a 6'10'' guy with a 7'3.5'' wingspan who can hit twenty footers on a consistent basis and put the ball on the court. We should talk about the things we didn't know about. Rip Hamilton actually looked pretty good on Wade, a couple of lapses aside. Jeff Van Gundy was pointing out every flaw (presumably in some kind of misplaced loyalty to the coaching fraternity.) But Rip carried the team for stretches even though he looked a couple of steps slow coming off the injury. Another thing we saw today that we may or may not see in the playoffs is that Derrick Rose eviscerated Miami's front line. I don't remember him being able to get his shot off like he did against the Heat last playoffs. I wonder if this is a temporary thing that will be solved with practice time, or if Heat's big men have taken a step back this year for some other reason.
Bosh has been playing amazing basketball lately. They're 9-1 in the last 10 games. Bosh scored 16, 33, 22, 19, 24, 20, 25, 18, 4, and 24 points. The press I've been reading says that with Wade out, Bosh had to step up and did. For the season, 21.2/8 on 55% shooting. Rose had great games against Miami in the regular season and game 1. 28 points in game 1, 27 on March 6, 26 on Feb 24, 34 on Jan 15 (shot 45% in the regular season and game 1). Boozer 12/10 on Mar 6, 16/9 on Feb 24, 12/10 on Jan 15, and... [video=youtube;-tH6vUXchco]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tH6vUXchco[/video] 20/11 in game 4. (the point is he can play well against the Heat)
Tough loss to swallow, but reasons for optimism too. Noah has his mojo back, and Boozer's actually hustling on D. Part of me thinks having Luol would have given us an extra push, the other part thinks that Lebron is such a freak that it wouldn't have mattered much. Hard to tell. Glad he didn't rush back though. I agree that the Heat just aren't a great matchup for Boozer. Their size and length negate his inside scoring capabilities, and he's not a very agile player, which puts him out of place. Taj's ability to come out and defend the pick n' roll is very valuable for us against the Heat, even though there's no way to capture it with statistics. It was nice to see Boozer diving for loose balls and busting his ass though. I thought it was curious the way we used him too. Did we give him the ball in the post even once? I'm not complaining....I think it would have been a disaster. At times he was even running off screens and shooting catch and shoot J's like Rip and Korver.....not sure I like that either. I think the biggest problem with Boozer against the Heat is that he's best moving off the ball into open spaces, and then catching the ball in motion and making a quick move. The problem is that the Heat cover so much distance that those opportunities aren't there in nearly the same quantity as they are against other teams, and when there is the space shrinks very quickly. Most games I think Rose could have an extra 3-4 assists if he fed the big men like Rip Hamilton does. However, yesterday those opportunities weren't there very much and I thought Rose did best by going to the basket like he usually does. Still worried about our inability to break their press. Rip helped a little bit, but we still stagnated far too often. Korver's ability to stretch the D is very nice, but god, where do you hide him on defense? I winced when he was guarding Lebron. I really enjoyed watching this game. Can't wait for the other 3. Go Bulls!
Yeah, the game was intense from start to finish. Your point about Rose getting more assists by feeding the big men is a great one. Right now, Rose doesnt often make the pass to guys who set picks for him. He's excellent at hitting guys open near the basket. Not sure this is a trust thing or he doesn't see the pass opportunity quick enough.
I think it's a not seeing the pass kind of thing. I've never gotten a hint that Derrick's a selfish player or "out to get his", even though he's a shoot first player. I just think most teams try and form a box around him whenever he has the ball and when he's trapped it's very instinctive for him to beat teams with his dribble than with his passing. Given how good he is at it, I can't say I blame him.
It is just the regular season guys, your team will still be tough to beat. Also Bosh is better than Wade this season, he should be valued more by Heat fans.
