CHICAGO – After the hated Miami Heat bounced his team from the playoffs earlier this week, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose was nowhere to be found at the team’s practice facility. Once again, he left coach Tom Thibodeau and a few of his battered, beaten teammates to answer questions about his decision to sit out the entire 2012-13 season. Then again, some things are best left unsaid. For Team Try Hard, it was a season of sprained body parts and unfulfilled promise, one
Or he lost his luggage and had to borrow a pair of pants from Nate Robinson. Perhaps Wade feels the need to fill the postseason haute couture void created by the season-ending injury to Russell Westbrook, who usually sets the tone for this sort of thing. Unless Wade is headed to a wedding reception on the beach, “fashion” in the NBA has officially reached a new low. (Hat tip to Deadspin, among many.)
Moving past the obvious in Miami’s Game 2 triumph How do you push past the obvious insight about Miami’s all-around 115-78 beatdown of Chicago in Wednesday night’s Game 2? What can you say besides the Heat shooting 60 percent to 35.5 percent for the Bulls? Let’s break down the major things that changed on both sides that helped lead to such a different result in Miami’s favor: Miami’s Big Three was way more efficient in Game 2, perhaps with more determination and urgency in
The second round of the NBA playoffs have kicked off with a bang. And after what was a rather drama-less first round has become quite the opposite as we watch the final eight contend for the title. Most notably, the Chicago Bulls shocked the Miami Heat in Game 1 Monday night — on the road no less — and the Indiana Pacers came into Madison Square Garden and punked the Knicks Sunday afternoon. Did you know the Bulls are 9-8 against the Heat
MIAMI – There’s no worry among the Miami Heat over their 93-86 Game 1 loss to Chicago on Monday. But on the Day After, there did seem to be some steely resolve from the defending champions to do better in the “effort” areas. Blend that with a healthy mix of “we’ve been here before,” and you have the tone of the chatter that followed the Heat’s practice Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena. [Read more…]
The two best games of the playoffs thus far have clearly been Game 4 between the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls and Game 1 between the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, which had a number of similarities. Both games went multiple overtimes. Both games had plenty of big shots. Both games had role players becoming unlikely heroes. And unfortunately for the Nets and Warriors, both games had huge collapses late in regulation. [Read more…]
It seems like the Chicago Bulls spent every last ounce of available energy and every last healthy or semi-healthy body simply to get out of the first round. It seems like the Miami Heat have not played in about a month, spending that time waiting for pretenders to wrap up their postseason series, chuckling to themselves and speculating on who was the lone wolf who did not cast a first-place MVP vote for LeBRon James. So it seems like the fifth-seeded Bulls
BROOKLYN — Nate Robinson navigated a Joakim Noah ball screen near the top of the key, kept his dribble alive and exploded down the right side of the paint with just over 5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 7. [Read more…]