Bulls Playoffs: No-See, Oh-Knee!
The Bulls beat the Heat today in Chicago to tie this first round, best-of-seven series at two games apiece. Great game. You know, I didn't give the Bulls much of a chance in this series. I predicted Miami in six, and I wasn't exactly going out on a limb there. This outcome of course can still happen, but I don't think it will. These last two games, the Bulls have been playing great basketball on both ends of the court, and everybody's contributing, even Michael Sweetney. Even in the games they lost, the offense was outstanding while the defense simply crapped out at the end.
Shaq had one of his worst games as a pro on Thursday, and he followed it up with a performance that can best be described as "not good enough." The Bulls simply went right at him, got a few mildly lucky calls, and suddenly Shaq has three fouls early in the 2nd quarter and has to sit. They've contained him by keeping him off the court. And what happened to Wade? Kirk Hinrich has put him in lockdown. Hinrich's good, but he looks like the reincarnation of The Glove out there (if The Glove wasn't already out there). Is Wade getting too much home cookin or what? And what's up with the Heat only shooting five free throws all day? Is that even possible? In watching the game, I recognized maybe two or three non-calls, but otherwise it was a pretty clean contest. The Heat just couldn't draw contact.
As for the Bulls, how about that Nocioni, eh? He looks like Olympic teammate Manu Ginobli out there. Great shooting inside and outside the arc, penetration, defense, steals...he's doing it all. With his hustle on every play, the fans in Chicago are starting to love this working man's hero, chanting his name all game (in a tradition that started last year in the playoffs.) Gordon and Hinrich came through today in a big way as well. Gordon was hitting his shots, while Hinrich was doing everything else. Really, it was just a great performance all around from everybody.
The only bad news to report is Tyson Chandler hurt his ankle, and at this time nobody knows how long he'll be out. I know I've ragged on Chandler, everybody has, but he really is damn good on defense. Not $65 million dollars good, but damn good. As Bill Walton said, "I've never seen a guy with worse stats have such a huge impact on the game." That's true. All he does well statistically is grab rebounds, everything else on the back of his basketball card looks like crap. Nevertheless, the Bulls are going to miss this Poor-Man's Ben Wallace. I'm not sure if they can contain Shaq without him.
This Bulls run has really gotten me into basketball again. It's kind of funny, I left them for dead two months ago and my interest started to wane. All of a sudden, they're winning 12 of their last 14, vaulting into the seventh seed of the playoffs. All that "I'd rather have another lottery pick than get swept by Detroit in the first round" talk has completely disappeared, amazingly enough. Next game is Tuesday, and I can't wait. See you then.