In Game 1, Chicago outworked the Heat and we saw what the Heat look like when things don’t go their way.
In Game 2 Wednesday night, Miami outworked the Bulls and we saw what the Bulls looked like when things don’t go their way —it was ugly. Like Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson get ejected ugly. And that was probably good for them, they didn’t have to witness any more of this game.
In the end it was a 115-78 Heat win, the worst loss in Bulls playoff history. It looked like what you most feared could happen when an injury-riddled team ran into a highly motivated, talented side. And to make it worse when things went poorly for them the Bulls lost their composure.
The series is tied 1-1 and heading back to Chicago where you know the Bulls will put up a better fight. We’ll see if that is enough.
A few things went much better for the Heat in Game 2 (compared to their Game 1 loss), and that started with LeBron James. His 19 points and 9 assists are not dominating numbers, but early in the game he started to open things up with his drives — he started 6-of-6 in the first quarter and all the shots were in the restricted area. He got to the rim. The Bulls adjusted to that but then he dished out to shooters, things opened up for the Heat offense and the rout started to be on.
The other key was the Heat defense shut down the good looks the Bulls got in Game 1 — and Chicago couldn’t knock down the bad looks they hit anyway in Game 1. Nate Robinson, who has been the catalyst for the Bulls hitting pull up jumpers and dicing up opposing defenses, started out 0-of-4 from the floor and finished the game 3-of-10 for 11 points.
As a team the Bulls shot just 35.5 percent against a much more active Heat defense for the game.
The first half of the game had no flow, and while we’d like to credit the defenses for that we should really thank the referees — there were 28 personal fouls, five technical fouls and one flagrant foul all in the first half (nine techs for the game). While the game was more physical and at times chippy, the referes seemed to try to control the emotions with their whistles. Sometimes bad whistles (both ways, the referees were equal opportunity bad). That worked about as well as it always does.
Because of the lack of flow and both teams struggled from the floor for stretches, but the Heat still started finding points behind LeBron, who had all 19 of his points at the half. The Bulls helped with that — Chicago turnovers became Miami transition points. The Heat were not blowing out the Bulls much of the first 24 minutes, but they seemed more comfortable and were getting cleaner looks. Miami led 55-41 at the break.
Then in the third quarter the Heat blew it all wide open. Miami shot 59.1 percent in the quarter to Chicago’s 23.5 percent (4-of-17) and that led to a 30-15 third quarter romp for the Heat. The Heat lead was 19 by the end of the quarter and the fourth was really just extended garbage time.
Marco Belinelli led the Bulls in scoring with 13 points, but he needed 13 shots to get there. Ray Allen led the Heat with 21 points and Miami got a good game out of Norris Cole at both ends — 18 points and he is part of the reason Nate Robinson struggled.
The Bulls will play better and keep it closer once they get on their home turf. You know no Tom Thibodeau team will roll over, regardless of who does or doesn’t suit up for Game 3.
But will it be enough remains the question. The Heat had a lot of things go their way in Game 2, but they also looked vastly superior overall. It wasn’t perfect for Miami — Dwyane Wade still looked hobbled and LeBron didn’t need to score but he could. Yet the Heat defense was more what we saw during the season and the Bulls had no answers for all of it put together. And that frustrated them.
They won’t be frustrated next game, but with not a lot of arrows in the quiver it will be a lot harder for Tom Thibodeau to respond.