Bulls vs. Heat: Miami Exposes Chicago in Time for Impending Playoff Matchup

The Miami Heat came away victorious in an absolute blood bath against the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls last night.

Even without last year’s MVP on the floor, Chicago was exposed on a number of fronts.

Miami swarmed the Bulls guards and forced them to defer or take contested, low-percentage shots. They made Luol Deng meekly attempt to carry the scoring load whilst trying to keep LeBron James covered on the defensive end. They also proved that the big men aren’t capable of coming through when it counts.

Joakim Noah added 15 and didn’t miss a single one of his five shots, Taj Gibson contributed nine points on 4-of-6 shooting off the bench, but Carlos Boozer was only able to score 10 while hitting just four of his 11 attempts. Omer Asik had a goose egg in the shots and scoring department.

Chicago relies on their guards and swingmen to put up the points and make the tough shots. Miami showed that if they expend their energy on taking away those options, it becomes near impossible for the Bulls to win.

Supporters of the team are going to say that the win means nothing without Rose, but the truth is, Miami has the athleticism—with LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole—to continually throw fresh legs and new defensive looks at the star for a full 48 minutes. They will be able to contain D-Rose and force him to dump it down to Boozer, Noah, Gibson or Asik. Not a single one of those guys is capable of shouldering a scoring load in the playoffs against the Heat.

While it won’t be easy, South Beach is hungry for revenge in the Finals and will stop at nothing to make sure that the Bulls backcourt can do no harm to them.

Last night, they crafted a blueprint, and they will execute it to perfection in the Eastern Conference Finals