Chicago Bulls: The One Blight in Their Shining Victory over the Miami Heat

When it was announced that Derrick Rose would not be playing in the Chicago Bulls’ rematch against the Miami Heat, many people probably considered it a foregone conclusion that the Heat would walk away with the win.

Well, surprise!

Putting on a clinic in team basketball, the Bulls grinded out a sans-Rose victory, 106-102.

The league renowned Bench Mob accounted for 56 points, 24 of them coming from reserve point guard John Lucas III.

Despite how well any team performs, though, there are always things a coach can look at and point out for improvement.

Chicago did a great job out-rebounding Miami, but they turned the ball over more.

They played great first-half defense holding the Heat to 42 points, but they let the Heat rattle off 60 second-half points.

Things like that are always a part of the game.

A head coach will point it out, advise the team about the necessary adjustments and move on to preparing for the next opponent.

Even when considering the overall effectiveness of the Bulls’ performance, there is one issue that should be cause for concern, the disappearing act of Carlos Boozer.

Boozer has received more criticism than praise since joining the Bulls, and in some cases it is justifiable.

He is not as effective as other teammates on defense, doesn’t go up strong in the post and settles for the outside shot too often.

Every player has their own respective flaws; however, when you look at Boozer’s two-point, eight-rebound box score from the Miami rematch game, and the 10-point, nine-rebound stat line from the season’s first meeting, you start to notice a pattern of Boozer having trouble stepping up against one of the Bulls’ biggest rivals.

It’s an ineffectiveness that goes back to last year’s Eastern Conference Finals.

Overall, Boozer averaged 14.4 points and 10.2 rebounds in that five-game series, but that line is skewed because Boozer failed twice to break 10 points. The difference was made up with a couple of 20-plus point games.

The general consensus is that these two teams will square off again this postseason, and while Chicago has grown tremendously this year, it will be hard to see them outlasting the Heat if they can’t get at least a neutralizing performance from Boozer to offset Chris Bosh’s contributions.

Boozer has demonstrated that he can deliver when Rose is out of the lineup.

In this season’s previous 10 games that Rose missed, Boozer averaged 18.3 points and 8.3 rebounds.

With numbers like that, it’s perplexing to watch him play a virtually invisible game against such a crucial opponent.

If this was an isolated incident, then it would be easy to overlook; however, Boozer’s lack of significant contributions against the Heat is a regular occurrence that could really harm the Bulls’ chances of dethroning Miami as Eastern Conference champions.

Boozer has given the Bulls plenty to be proud about this season, most notably starting every game so far.

If he is as serious about silencing his critics like he said he was at the beginning of the season, he's going to have to step up against the marquee teams.

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