Keep the White Horse in the Stable

I know... I'm infringing on Geoffy's territory. But he hasn't posted yet, and there's no rule that says we can't double up on the biggest game of the season so far.

I missed most of the 1st quarter last night, but caught the end of it on ESPN 1000, plus part of the 2nd quarter until I got home and watched the rest. This game was a phenomenal one (easy for me to say, given the result). We can't confirm anything about the seemingly inevitable playoff matchup between these teams from just this one game, but we did learn a few things about both teams.

I tried to make this a multiple point argument, but I keep coming back to one main point Bill Simmons brought up after the 2011 NBA Finals.

"You can't win with three guys. You need seven, at least, then you need a couple of random Brian Cardinal-type moments every game. That's why Rick Carlisle so pointedly kept mentioning "team basketball" in the postgame presser last night. You need eight or nine guys to come through to win a title. We learn this every spring. And then, we forget it every summer, fall, and winter. The 2010-11 Heat tried to buck the system. Didn't work." [Source]

That was what happened last night. LeBron and Wade combined for 71 of the Heat's 102 points. And yes, James Jones had 2 huge 3's near the end that made it more interesting than I wanted it to be. But Bosh was awful last night (3-15 shooting), and Jones' 2 triples were the only ones he took. As a whole, Miami's bench shot 4-14 (15 points). That's not going to get it done.

On the other hand, the entire Bulls team came ready to play. Deng struggled from the field, but the shots he hit were crucial ones. Watson played nice defense, coming up with a big layup off a steal to stem a Miami run. Noah played great defense, coming up with some key blocks.

But the biggest thing last night was the beloved Bench Mob. Korver brought the hot sauce. Gibson and Asik controlled the paint. Jimmy Butler continues to show promise. But of course, the biggest star last night was John Lucas III.

I wish they had the CSN Chicago feed up when I wrote this. Stacey King went nuts. ("I don't care who you are, LeBron James! You can't stop me! You can't even hope to contain me!") I tweeted that Derrick Rose must have bestowed his "Destroyer of Worlds" powers to John Lucas last night. Something happened where John Lucas just couldn't miss.

The other big numbers? The Bulls won the rebounding battle (50-34). The Bulls had 14 offensive boards leading to 21 2nd chance points. You won't win many games giving a team like the Bulls that many opportunities.

Let's put this game into perspective though. Would the presence of D-Rose have made this game a little more separated? I want to say yes... but I don't know. LeBron would have been on him the whole time and they would have trapped him everywhere. He wouldn't have gotten to attack the way Lucas did. The Bulls also shot 10-19 from deep last night (they were 9-13 at one point). They won't be that hot from deep every night unfortunately. At the same time, it took Dwayne Wade going off in the 4th quarter to get the game that close. I'll be honest. He scares me, but it's hard to go 8-9 from the field in a quarter, and 4-5 from outside the paint. One constant you can figure will still happen is that LeBron will still disappear in the 4th quarter.

Regardless, when these teams meet in the Eastern Conference Finals, we're going to be due for another bloodbath. The Bulls will have a great shot this year at getting over the hump and making the Finals behind the hero known as D-Rose, but he won't be going in alone. He'll have his supporting cast right beside him to help get to the Promised Land.