Bulls vs. Heat
Bulls vs. Heat
The Bulls lost their much-anticipated measuring stick game to the Heat 107-104. How both teams ended up scoring over 100 points I will never know. It felt like neither team could get a quality look, let alone score, for much of the game.
Three Thoughts From Today's Game
1. This Was No Moral Victory
I would have been okay with the loss and even considered it a moral victory if it wasn't for the fact that Miami was playing without Tyler Herro (22 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists per game). The problems were numerous for the Bulls:
Problem #1: Turnovers (22)
The Bulls had 22 of them. It's hard to win a game against any team with that many turnovers. We knew coming into the game that that would be an area of concern as the Heat - with Butler and Lowry two of the best in the league at steals over their careers - are known for playing stingy defense. It's somewhat of an achievement that the Bulls only lost by 3 considering the number of Bulls blunders.
Several of the turnovers were a result of good anticipation and a collapsing defense that swarmed the paint. Others were self-inflicted, and can't happen against better teams.
Problem #2: Zone
The zone was too effective. Our decision-making in the half court against the zone was poor, and so was our shooting. Stacy King repeatedly pointed out what the Bulls had to do to bust the zone, but Caruso was the only one to fill the space in the middle of the paint to force a reaction from the defense. One can only hope that Donovan had the same talk with his team. Unfortunately, even when Caruso flashed middle, too many of the open looks that stemmed from his passes came up empty and no one else picked apart the zone in the same way when he was off the court.
Problem #3: Vucevic, Lavine, and Coby
All three were very bad -- worse than the stats make it look, especially in Lavine's case as he pumped up his stats after the game was already essentially decided. A lot of their badness was a result of simply missing makeable shots, but some of it was poor decision-making. Vucevic was way too passive. Over and over again he caught the ball in the middle of the paint, and immediately swung it to the other side of the court without even considering being a scoring threat. He is too good and too important to the overall scheme to not even look at the basket, let alone to repeat it so often throughout the game. Lavine, as usual, passed on open shots to drive it into three defenders, making his shot-selection more difficult than it needed to be. He has so much skill and athleticism but just doesn't know how to use it the way someone like Chris Paul, or even his counterpart DeMar DeRozan can do. He needs to take what the defense gives him more often -- it seems like he decides what he's going to do and then tries to make it happen rather than reading the defense. I hope he can learn from DeRozan this year. Coby, meanwhile, still doesn't know what a good shot is, and he makes high school level passes at least once per game.
The good news is that all three of these players have shown over long periods of time that they can perform much than they did tonight. One of then needed to play closer to their ability, but since none of them did, the Bulls lost.
Problem #4: Coby played. Ayo didn't.
Ayo didn't get many minutes, coming in at under 10. Since Coby took those minutes and played badly with them, this might have been the difference in the game. That said, I support giving Coby the minutes he got. We need to see what he can do -- and when he's on, he can create opportunities like no one else on the team outside of DeRozan and Lavine.
Problem #5: Threes.
You play with fire and eventually you're gonna get burned. Wait. I mean, you play with the Heat, and eventually you're going to get torched from long distance. Yes, that works better! The Heat are one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the NBA, especially when Herro is active. They didn't shoot it great at first, but unsurprisingly, Lowry got hot late.
2. Stacy King is the best announcer in the NBA.
There are other good ones, but Stacy King's combination of humor and quality analysis is top notch. He is the king of comedy, quality, and coining phrases when it comes to announcing games. Just check out the next two videos for a taste of what I'm talking about.
#1. Stacy King Analysis (Stacy breaks down how to break down the zone defense)
#2. Stacy King Comedy (Stacy comments on Dedmon's chair-kicking incident (top left corner))
He can make even the worst games entertaining. Throw in the fact that he seems like he's just a good guy and someone who would be fun to hang out with, and any game I have to watch without him just feels a little emptier now. Thank you, Stacy, for what you do.
3. I love Alex Caruso
Caruso had a night. Well, another night in a series of nights. But this time he did it on the offensive end as well! He had the best +/- on the Bulls (tied with Coby White... somehow) with +3 on his way to 22 points, 6 assists, and 1 steal. He got MVP chants whenever he stepped to the free throw line where he went 7-7, he played hard on defense (as always) and made the right decisions on offense whether it was flashing middle to break the zone and throw a lob to DJJ, or taking the three when it is the right play, or driving or passing it when it wasn't. His play is the main reason the Bulls were in it in spite of bad games from basically everyone outside of DeRozan.
Bonus Thought: Javonte Injury Concern
I am concerned about Javonte. He has been clutching his wrist for several games now, every time he comes down hard on the floor. You love his enthusiasm the way he tries to dunk on absolutely everybody any time he catches the ball with a running start, but he is attacking the rim with reckless abandon, and if he keeps it up he's going to hurt more than just his wrist. As we know, Patrick Williams is out for the season with a wrist injury, and Caruso missed a game after being hampered with his wrist for weeks. He has to ease off of those ridiculous dunk attempts a little bit and recover from his injury. He looked the most in pain we've seen him in this game.
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