2009-2010 Season: Miami Heat 95 vs. Chicago Bulls 87
November 2nd, 2009 by Andrew WamboldtThe Chicago Bulls fell to the Miami Heat 95 to 87 last night in Miami.
The game was a closely fought contest for most of the game, but the Heat pulled away during crunch time, as the Bulls failed to execute down the stretch.
There were two major problems that caused the Bulls demise in this game.
The first, is that they lacked a player who would take the game by its horns and lead the team to victory. The game was closely fought throughout, and the Bulls did a good job on the defensive end, but at no point in the fourth quarter did anyone in the Bulls string together a few shots in a row to give the Bulls a solid 6-10 point lead.
The other big problem I noticed was that the team’s execution was poor in the clutch. This seemed more like the players being scared to step up and making the wrong basketball plays, rather than any systematic problems with the Bulls clutch strategy.
Derrick Rose turned the ball over as a result of a wreckless baseline drive of his, and Salmons turned the ball over with 23 seconds left as he couldn’t handle the ball.
There was one play where Kirk Hinrich dribbled out of a three point shot, showing that he didn’t want to step up and be the man in clutch time. Then Luol Deng got the ball near the three point line, and decided that he was going to force action. Deng drove to the hoop, and missed the runner (although it looked like basket interference on the Heat). It was nice to see Deng step up and try to be the man in clutch time, but it was a stupid basketball play.
Luol Deng should have shot the three. At that point, the Bulls were down 93-87. Deng took his layup with 30 seconds left in the game. If he would have taken the three, he could have cut the Miami lead to 3 points, with around 30 seconds in the ball game. The Bulls could have gotten a stop, and would have still had time to have a chance to tie it on the other end. However, Deng decided to drive in for a two point attempt. If he would have made the shot, the Bulls would have still been down by 4 points, and would have been forced to play the foul game.
The one big positive for the Bulls yesterday was their team defense. The strength of the Bulls defense yesterday was in the help defense of their big men and Luol Deng. The players effectively moved into driving lanes to stop the Heat’s penetration. They also helped out effectively when the Heat’s big men had the ball in the paint. The two weak spots in the Bulls’ defense so far has been Derrick Rose and John Salmons, both of whom have difficulty staying in front of their man, and both of whom have trouble chasing their man around, allowing the opponent to have too many open threes.
The star of this game for Miami was Udonis Haslem, who finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. His rebounding and the midrange jumpers that he made were key in getting the Heat the victory.
Dwyane Wade added in 25 points, scoring his 10,000th career point in this game.
Luol Deng led the Bulls in scoring with 26 points. Deng had a nice game scoring 26 points and 8 rebounds. Deng was making his shots from midrange, which allowed him to score efficiently in the ball game. However, Deng still took 21 shots to get his 26 points. Deng really needs to work on that three point shot, so he can become a more efficient scorer. He scored efficiently tonight (56 TS%), but he isn’t always going to shoot that well from midrange, and when he’s not, his efficiency is going to suffer. 56 TS% is more around where we want Deng’s average for the season to be around, not his best games of the year, so I think Luol still needs quite a bit of work, but good performance tonight nonetheless.
John Salmons had his first good game of the year, scoring 17 points on 7-14 shooting. The alarming part is that Salmons only shot 1-5 from three point line. Salmons is going to need to make the three point shot in order to stretch the defense some, opening up more driving lanes for Derrick Rose.
The Bulls struggled at the point guard spot tonight. Kirk Hinrich put up a bad 7 points on 3-11 shooting, and Derrick Rose was downright awful, putting up 8 points on 4-15 shooting, along with 5 assists and 5 rebounds.
Tyrus Thomas had a nifty little game, finishing with 4 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks. For some reason, Thomas only played 21 minutes in the game, which was hard to understand, because it seemed like Thomas was active out there, rebounding the basketball and blocking shots.
Joakim Noah gave the Bulls 10 points and 7 rebounds and Brad Miller chipped in 11 points.
Michael Beasley finished the game with 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Beasley strugged offensively, going 3-12 from the field, but he did some nice things on the defensive end, and he rebounded the ball well.
Mario Chalmers put in 11 points for the Heat, and Carlos Arroyo added 12 points off the bench.
With the loss, the Bulls fall to 1-2 on the season, and are currently slotted as the 11th seed in the Eastern Conference.
Closing Comments
The Bulls put up another good defensive performance last night holding the Heat to only 95 points. The Bulls just failed to execute down the stretch, as they lacked that player who can score in bunches to give you the lead or that player who hits the big shots in the clutch. The offense as a whole has been a big problem for the Bulls this year. They currently have the third worst offense in the league, with a 99.0 O-Rtg. Only the Charlotte Bobcats and Milwaukee Bucks have been worse.
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Tags: 10000th point, Brad Miller, Carlos Arroyo, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Joakim Noah, John Salmons, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Mario Chalmers, Miami Heat, Michael Beasley, Tyrus Thomas, Udonis Haslem
