Our frontcourt bench is a luxury, but it has to be difficult to manage in terms of minutes. Omer and Taj could both be all-defensive team players if they started. Taj has rare athleticism AND defensive polish as a PF and he can guard 2, if not 3, positions. Omer does as good a job as I've seen as a 7-footer who keeps his hands up, jumps straight up and gets his body into a defender immediately once the ball is dished inside. He also has a strong lower body. Omer brings a lot of things Noah doesn't on the defensive end.

I hope this depth is enough to wear the Heat down in this series. If it's not, the Bulls have some good pieces to move in the offseason, and they will be forced to. If this outstanding defense and depth doesn't win a championship, the Bulls have to get more top-heavy.... and if the contracts weren't so difficult to move, I almost wish Noah and Boozer would be the ones to go.

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lol

funny how the series is now tied 1-1 and people are talkin about the offseason...cmon people

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Trolls be trollin'; We ain't bitin'

It's hard to understand how they can come out this flat and let Miami back in the series.

Asik is very good defensively and I'd love to keep him but if Noah goes, it destroys this teams foundation I think. Asik's ceiling is a slightly better defender than noah and not as good offensively. Noah is a great passer, much better finisher, etc etc etc on the offensive end. Actually Omer pretty much sucks with the ball in his hands. That's not even getting into the intangibles Noah brings

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Not really. This really wasn't a flat performance

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I think Asik is already a better defender than Noah, and I'm not entirely ready to write off his ability to improve on offense. Obviously he's still raw on that end of the floor, but Noah also had a lot of room to improve during his first few years (though I know his dedication is not the norm).

We'll agree to disagree on their defense right now

Noah is significantly better on the offensive end all-around. An athletic 7 foot gifted passer who's as smart as anyone on the court is not easy to replicate

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

this game tore my heart out... i was coldly detached from this series, i wish that the bulls would have won game #2 instead of 1 cuz i wouldn't have gotten my heart tore out, but like, congrats to the heatles on winning the 2011 NBA championship.

god, i hope i'm wrong. for what it's worth, i always cheered for dallas to win the title in the 00s so i'd go for them now, but watch OKC beat them.... the post count is too high =D

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That loss last night hurts. If you would have told me before the game that the bulls would hold the Heat to 85 points, I would have thought they would have won easily. They still had a nice advantage on the offensive glass, but the tip-ins and putbacks just were not falling. It also didn't help that they shot abyssmally from the 3 point line.

Down the stretch I really think Thibs should have stuck with the defensive lineup with Asik, Brewer, Deng, Taj, and Rose. They were shutting down Miami and keeping things close. Right when Korver and Noah were subbed in, the Heat went on a run and the game was over. And can Thibs please stop playing Rose the entire 2nd half? He was out of gas at the end of the game, and his shots were coming up short.

Haslem was huge for Miami last night and it looks like he finally might be back in shape after sitting the entire year.

Overall, I ain't worried about the next two in Miami. I think the Bulls will steal one down there and this series is probably going 7 games. The Bulls shot about as bad as they could last night, and that shouldn't happen again in this series.

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Haslem was huge last night. Good point on rose's pt.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

If Rose is the MVP, then this loss is on Rose. He needs to play better. 5/13 games this playoffs shooting under 40%.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The Bulls shot bad. Rose had a bad game, and yet they still had a pretty good shot of winning. They are fine. This is going to be a long series, but I like the Bulls chances. Haslem is not going to keep up that level of play every game.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

rose was just mr cant get right last night. that was all the difference. that, and korver cant do what he does for some reason....

but i cant count how many times rose got right to the rim and didnt finish. it was completely out of character for him. then, at one point he even stopped driving and started HITTING 20ft jumpers, that was impressive... but if he cant drive then pretty much game over, and it was.

also, miami played their best last night. bulls played a bad game.... so yeah, im not worried one bit.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Why isn't Game 3 until Sunday? People complained about the extra day off because of Oprah, but now there is even a bigger break in the series between Games 2 & 3. The West plays tonight, and then again on Saturday. So they're playing twice while the East isn't doing shit. What the fuck David Stern?

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I counted 6. He's had more bad shooting games than he has had good shooting games. Everyone has been giving him a pass but he has to step up. He was awful last night. If he had just been bad they would have won the game. Along with that ref that kept making up calls it looked like Rose was trying to help Miami.

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Agreed. With the way Watson looked last night I understood.

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Douchebag, it's the NBA & Turner/TNT Sports that sets up the playoff schedule. The East Finals would've started Monday had it not been for you-know-who...

As for last night, I can't say I'm surprised that this series is now tied at 1-1. Everyone talks about LeBron's 29 w/10 rebounds and Dwyane Wade's 24, but Udonis Haslem was the real MVP in the Heat's 85-75 Game 2 road win. Out most of the season with a foot injury, Haslem gave Miami energy & help off their bench with 13 big points.

As far as the Bulls go, this loss goes beyond 34% field goal shooting & 16/26 free throws. In my opinion, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Kyle Korver & C.J. Watson were all non-factors in this loss. Each of these guys needs to have a bounce back (or two) down in Miami Sunday night in Game 3 and Tuesday night in Game 4. The Bulls can't afford to come home to Chicago next Thursday for Game 5 empty-handed after winning Game 1. A win at AmericanAirlines Arena is a must in one of these next 2.

I wasn't turning on Rose last night, just saying the MVP chants are dumb. The guy won the awarded already, no need to sit there chanting MVP. Since he is MVP though, he needs to bring it like James did last night. He needs to be the goods Sunday night, and not missing layups and free throws. I need to see at least 30 points and a good shooting %.

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Fuck Edwards and Zobrist

Schmitty, I expect D.Rose to have a strong bounce-back game Sunday night in Game 3 down in Miami, but even if he scores 35 or more, it won't mean squat if the rest of his Bulls don't pick up the slack.

Why are they still chanting "MVP! MVP!" when D.Rose won the award 2 weeks ago? Am I missing something?

Honestly I think Haslem's contribution has been overrated. Yes he had a really good stretch, but Spolestra ended up keeping him in the game entirely too long in the fourth, allowing the Bulls to get back in the game and pretty much undermining the contributions he made in the third. He ended up with the worst +/- on the entire team (yes, I realize that stat has limited applicability in basketball but I think it still helps indicate the impact of his running out of steam).

Fan pride. Rose is the best possible face of this franchise he could be. The fans love him more than many expected and whether it's smart dumb hurtful or non hurtful to his game, I'm pretty sure it's just excited fans way of thanking him

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Are you serious? Fans have been chanting it since late November. His FT% steadily got better as the regular season went on. The last couple of games he hasn't shot as well from the line. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with chanting. The main culprits are going to be fatigue and getting hammered more as the playoffs have gone on. It is hard to shake off some of those shots on your hands, arms and shoulders in less than 30 seconds.

I agree. Ever since the game against the Clippers in December when he missed the FT to tie it with no time left, his foul shooting has gotten significantly better. I think that game made him dedicate himself more to shoot better from the line. I can imagine he stayed up all weekend after that game just shooting FT's.

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Posted this on April 9th in a Beardown thread about Rose.

In re Haslem: Spoelstra may have won the battle and lost the war with him. He was very good on Wednesday, but going from zero to 23 is tough. I know there's a big layover, but he may be dragging ass on Sunday.

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The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

i just took a fat ass bong hit

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Korver needs to get going. Bulls are 30-4 when Korver contributes 10 or more. And 41-20 when he doesn't.

And those tend to be big shots as the game goes on.

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"Mattress technology has come a long way"

- Dan Bernstein, 2016

Am I the only one that fears this ? That if the Heat win it all that the Bulls won't have a chance until LeBron is over the hill,or out the league!

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.