Miami Heat 90 vs. Chicago Bulls 77
December 26th, 2008 by Andrew WamboldtThe Chicago Bulls lost to the Miami Heat 90 to 77 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL.
The game was tied 64 to 64 going into the fourth quarter. From there on out, it was all Miami, as they outscored the Bulls 26 to 13 in the fourth.
The Bulls lost in part because of some poor coaching by Vinny Del Negro. Ben Gordon got off to a good start, scoring 11 points in the first quarter. Del Negro then benched Gordon for most of the 2nd quarter, assuring that Gordon would go cold. Del Negro needs to learn to leave in the hot hand. If the Bulls could have ridden Gordon’s hot hand in the 2nd quarter, the game may have had a better outcome.
Following the hot start, Gordon settled into a rather poor game. Gordon finished with 15 points on 6-16 shooting, 1 rebound, and 1 assist. There is not much to read into with Gordon’s low assist totals, as his teammates simply missed too many wide open shots off of Gordon passes for him to get assists. Gordon started out hot shooting wise, and was alright in the 3rd, but was cold in the fourth after having been frozen out of the offense in the 2nd half. Gordon did a good job handling the Heat’s constant double teams tonight.
Gordon and company did a nice job on Dwyane Wade, limiting him to 28 points 11-23 shooting, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists. The Bulls held Wade to less than his average on less than stellar efficiency. In addition, they did not let Wade have a big playmaking game, limiting him to 2 assists, well below his season average.
Ben Gordon is now one three point shot away from tying Scottie Pippen as the all time Chicago Bulls three point shooter.
The Bulls also found it difficult to win with Luol Deng leaving the game with an ankle injury. Deng had 8 points and 9 rebounds before leaving the game.
Derrick Rose had another poor game. Rose had 10 points on 3-14 shooting, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 turnovers. He did not look good at all, on either side of the ball, allowing Chalmers to get 16 points and 5 assists. When Rose is playing like this, he really hurts the Bulls.
Larry Hughes was the Bulls worst player though. Hughes had 13 points on 5-14 shooting. Hughes seems to be back to playing his selfish brand of basketball, and needs to be weaned out of the rotation if this selfish streak continues.
The Bulls got solid production out of Aaron Gray and Tyrus Thomas. Aaron Gray had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Tyrus Thomas had 6 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 1 block. The Bulls interior defense is improving a bit with Gooden out of the line up, but they’re offense appears to be worse with the absence of Gooden’s jumpshooting.
Michael Beasley played very good. Beasley had 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He looked really good on both sides of the ball. Keeping Beasley on a tight leash to hold him accountable on defense seems to be paying dividends for the Heat.
Andres Nocioni scored 10 points in the game.
The Bulls fall to 13-15 with tonight’s loss and are now on the outside looking in on the playoffs.
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Tags: Aaron Gray, Andres Nocioni, ankle, ankle injury, Ben Gordon, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, injury, Larry Hughes, Luol Deng, Mario Chalmers, Miami Heat, Michael Beasley, poor coaching, Scottie Pippen, selfish, three pointer, Tyrus Thomas, Vinny Del Negro
