After a tough loss at the hands of the hated Miami Heat that looked far too similar to the Eastern Conference Finals, it’s hard to be optimistic about the Bulls chances later on in the season. However if you look past the surface, you see that things are far from hopeless.
The Bulls were playing with ridiculous injury problems. Derrick Rose is still battling turf toe, Rip Hamilton is dealing with his pulled groin, Taj Gibson just came back from a sprained ankle, and that doesn’t even count that we were missing our second best player in Luol Deng AND backup point guard in C.J Watson!
From this game, you have to take more positive than negative. Joakim Noah had an outstanding game with 11 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists. He showed that he really is a player who will cause Miami all sorts of problems in the playoffs. The Bulls were also able to contain Wade effectively, so we can see that the last playoffs likely was not a fluke in terms of containing Wade.
The Bulls were also able to hold the Heat to 41% shooting without arguably their best defender on the floor. When Luol Deng comes back, they will have yet another guy that they can throw at LeBron, and that can never hurt.
The one concern that you have to have is that Rose was ineffective when LeBron switched onto him, and that is something that we will have to keep an eye on when the Bulls play the Heat again. However knowing that the Bulls had so many injuries going against them, and that they were playing on the road, and STILL had a chance to win at the end has to be encouraging for Bulls fans.
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2 Comments
Chicago will never beat the Heat with bums like Boozer not contributing. Forget Korver, Boozer shouldnt be getting a pass.
^ TO THE CONTRARY. Boozer has not been a “bum” this year. I think that because of last season people have developed this thoughts and are unwilling to change them. I know you’ll point to his defense and say that he he doesn’t play defense.. YEAH WE KNOW THAT. but he was brought in for his offense.. Know I’ll let the stats speak. Boozer is the only Bulls starter that has started all 23 games this far. He averages 15.8 and and 8.6 RPG. 15.8ppg is the 2nd highest on the team after Rose, and he shooting 52.2% from the field, the best of any Bulls player who has shot more than 100 FGs. But I do agree with you on one thing. BOOZER played a horrible game vs. Heat where he had only 10pts and missed shot after shot in the 1st qtr. If the Bulls want to get past Heat, they’re going to need Boozer to be at his best, and start off early in the game.
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