2011 NBA Playoffs: Carlos Boozer Says No One Is Talking Bulls; Is He Right?
KC Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweeted Saturday afternoon, "CBooz: "Nobody talked about us at the start of the season. Nobody talked about us during the season. Nobody's talking about us now."
Now of course, a bunch of the blogosphere is aghast at the tweet, wondering how on earth a team that no one is talking about won the MVP, Coach of the Year, shared the Executive of the Year award and placed a member on the NBA All-Defensive second team is not getting talked about.
Well, in a lot of ways, they aren't getting talked about. Derrick Rose got talked about. Tom Thibodeau got talked about. Even Gar Foreman got talked about. However, the Chicago Bulls aren't getting talked about.
Put another way, how many people have you heard say, "They've got the MVP, the COY and the co-EOY, as well as the best defensive center left in the playoffs. How can you pick against them?" Pretty much no one right?
In fact, having the MVP has been used against them more often that it's been used in their favor. People keep pointing to how no one has won the MVP and the championship in the same year since 2003. It's almost as though winning MVP precludes Chicago from a trophy this season.
Tom Thibodeau won Coach of the Year because, in large part, the Bulls had the best regular season record in the NBA. They won the top overall seed, but people point to "Only twice in the last 10 years has the team with the top seed won the title. (This usually admits that those two times came in the last three years, or that it's been 15 times in the last 31 years. Why let facts spoil perfectly good rhetoric?)
The media keeps using the word "struggle" to define the manner in which Chicago won the series against Atlanta. Forget that. They won by an average of over 15 points per game. Heck, they barely got by them.
While they were "struggling" with Atlanta, Miami was throttling Boston, the reigning Eastern Conference champion. Of course they'd also been playing at best, average since the trade deadline, but then again why let reality spoil the rhetoric?
Since the trade deadline, according to basketball-reference's updated SRS standings, the Celtics have been the 12th best team in the NBA. Heck that's slightly above average right? That vaunted offense that the "new" Heat defense shut down? Ranked 26th. Woah Daddy! That's some kind of offensive fire power they put out!
Especially when you consider that in the last two games and a half, games they had a one-armed point guard, they won one of those games and nearly won another. Yep, while Miami was easily handling one-armed point guards in overtime, the Bulls were struggling to pull out 12, 13, 17 and 20-point wins over Atlanta.
Now of course, Atlanta was this horrible team, and if the Bulls had played Orlando, then they wouldn't even be in the finals. Now the fact that Atlanta beat Orlando plays actually no bearing on anything. That Orlando team, the one that played Atlanta, that was a team that deserves no credibility, therefore Atlanta deserves no credit for beating them, and by extension, the Bulls get no credit for beating them.
Of course, the Bulls did "struggle" against the Pacers too, in that they trailed in the fourth quarter in three of the four games they ultimately won. That they won all three games hardly matters because they trailed at some point in those games.
That the Heat nearly blew a lead in their Game 1 against Philadelphia and again in their closeout game hardly matters. Pay no attention to that. Close only counts against Chicago. When it comes to Miami close means they're "learning to close out games."
However, we have to switch logic when we talk about the close games that the Bulls played against the Heat because when they were against the Heat, it was "just eight points in three games." See when the Bulls win close, they really lost. When the Heat lose close, they really win.
Now the Bulls are 8-3 in the postseason and the Heat are 8-2. The Bulls have a higher margin of victory (even with the extra loss) in the postseason than the Heat. They have a higher efficiency differential.
In terms of their efficiency recap, the Bulls are a plus-19.2 in the postseason, the Heat plus-10.3. Their starters have done better (plus-16.7 to plus-11.8), and their bench has done better (plus-2.5 to minus-1.5). But yep, the Heat have been doing better in they eyes of the media because they beat a hollowed out former champion with a one-armed point guard.
Of course, the Heat are a "different team" now. I know this because they keep reporting it on SportsCenter. Heck, they've got Joel Anthony starting now! Joel Anthony! Yessiree-bob! How can you go against Joel Anthony?
He's brought the Heat defense even with the Bulls defense. Now mind you, the Bulls defense has been the best defense all season, ranking No. 1 in points per 100 possessions, points per play, opponent field goal percentage and opponent three-point percentage.
The Heat beat Philadelphia (19th best offense in the NBA since the break in schedule adjusted offensive efficiency) and Boston (23rd). Yes, Miami shut down those titans of offensive prowess. In fact, they've only given up 1.3 more points per 100 possessions and a six-point higher field goal percentage. So obviously, they're just as good as Chicago. I mean almost as good is the same as just as good right? It's because they have this "new" team.
Of course, we can't use the same logic to determine that Chicago, who has a more efficient offense in the postseason (108.6 to 108.4) has a better offense than Miami right? I mean, let's ignore the fact that this "new" Miami team is scoring three points less per 100 possessions in the playoffs and have a smaller MOV. That would be using the same standard on both teams and we just can't do that!
Yes! the Heat are dominating, and the Bulls are struggling even though by every statistical metric it's the other way around. You can't make this stuff up.
It's almost like the way things are characterized, there was a magic genie that popped out of a bottle after the Lakers came back in the last game to beat the Kings in overtime. As soon as that last buzzer sounded, he gave all the Miami Heat magical powers, and he took away all grasp of basketball from all the Chicago Bulls except for Derrick Rose.
Joel Anthony is a veritable All-Star, and Joakim Noah looks at the big striped orange and wonders how to peel it. The Bulls played against the Pacers (fifth in the NBA in rebounding this year and the Hawks (27th). The Heat played against the 76ers (14th) and the Celtics (29th.) So the two Bulls two opponents were better rebounding opponents than the two Heat opponents (fifth>14 and 27>29).
Yet, people are trying to equate Miami's rebounding with Chicago's. It's because this a a "new" Heat team mind you. Forget that they don't actually have any "new" players. They got blessed by the genie.
The Bulls have this boring and predictable offense while Miami has a much more diverse offense. Chicago relies on "one guy," and Miami has three. We know this is true because John Hollinger said so, and John Hollinger is never, ever wrong. Who cares that the Bulls have the second-most assists in the postseason? Does it matter that they've been averaging 21.0 per game to Miami's 15.6?
No! That would be letting facts get in the way of the story and muddling things up. Pay no attention to the numbers behind the curtain. We all know that the Bulls can only score in transition because that's what they told us on ESPN. It's the Bulls that struggle in half-court offense, not the Heat.
Does it matter that 12.9 percent of Miami's offensive plays come in transition while only 11.8 percent of Chicago's do? No, of course not. When it comes to looking at that, then it's a good thing for Miami because it means they can kill you in transition (which they can—but so can Rose). When the Bulls score in transition it's bad. When the Heat score in transition, it's good.
In fact, if you look at per game numbers, the Bulls have gotten more points, more rebounds, more assists, more steals and more blocks, while giving up fewer points, fewer rebounds and fewer assists (Miami has given up fewer steals and blocks). Miami has shot .1 percent better and Chicago is .6 percent better in opponent field goal percentage.
Yep. That's the difference between "struggling" and "dominating" I guess. Of course, this is all just my spin on things I'm sure. Of course my "spin" is just actually stating what the facts are without trying to juice them up with my concept.
Carlos Boozer is wrong in one sense. People are talking about the Bulls. They are talking about how they can't win. They are talking about how they are "struggling," and they are talking about how many games it's going to take Miami to beat them in a seven-game series. Shame on you Carlos Boozer!
