After watching Miami take a 2-1 advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals, it's clear that the Bulls are in a world of trouble, a trouble indicted by the lack of confidence, a lack of confidence that comes from inexperience, and an inexperience that is becoming the glaring conduit of Bulls Eastern Conference Finals failure 2o11.
Heading into the series, we considered all sides and angles of everything Miami and Chicago, trying to dissect what it would take for the ball to bounce this way or that. My favorite aspect of championship basketball is depth. Team depth seems to always been the most evident thing on every championship team, and it's an easy argument every time some scruffy little Knicks fan tries telling me that NYK can beat the Celtics in the first round, or that the Heat have the tricks to stomp their way into June basketball. I always support the team of plenty. A team like Dallas, or Chicago, have not only backups, but they have backups for their backups. Omer Asik goes down? Bring on Kurt Thomas. Ronnie "Don't Call Me Corey" Brewer, Kyle Korver, Keith "French Food" Bogans all take their turns contributing in the wings. Boozer turns into Gibson. Noah into Asik. Only their backup to Derrick Rose, young C.J. Watson, is a true hazard to Bulls success. I've watched a lot of Bulls basketball over the season and playoffs, and I rarely see Watson make his jump shot, yet I see him shoot it whenever he can. Bad brain? Yes! Fortunately for Chicago they have a point guard in Rose who can play 40+ minutes a night.
So why does Miami have the 2-1 edge as well as a Game 4 home game to take control of the series? Well, as Miami is proving, perhaps there's something even bigger than depth when it comes to being victorious in the playoffs. Surely we all figured Chicago to have the demeanor to win the East, what with them owning the best regular season record, the MVP, the Coach of the Year, and a roster that plays 11 deep. In what has been a watered down Eastern Conference Playoffs leading up to this Bulls/Heat contest, Chicago implemented their depth, taking care of business. But bright lights are burning stronger here in the Conference Finals, and as a result I'm seeing unsure, uncool Bulls, the kind normally saved for bovine comic book conventions and all-night bovine Call of Duty marathons. It's ugly, it's nerdy, and it's killing the Eastern Conference.
In what was supposed to be one of the greatest playoffs of all time, failure is responsible for the recent outcomes more so than greatness. In the first round, failure kept Orlando at bay. The Spurs keep making excuses (although legitimate (Ginobili played with broken bone in arm)), giving their historically epic series against Memphis a "Spurs beat themselves" vibe that the Grizzlies don't deserve. The Lakers collapsed in curious failure against Dallas, even though the Mavs were extremely unbeatable in that series. Boston wasn't themselves, and the showdown we'd all been waiting for out East, Celtics and Heat, was merely a shadow of what could have been, again, due to flailing and failure. And now the Chicago Bulls aren't handling themselves.
The MVP Rose is showing us very pedestrian numbers on a consistent basis. For the playoffs his shooting numbers are down across the board, yet he's averaging very similar totals in points and assists as he did in the reg. He's trying to do it all alone here against the Heat, simply because his supporting cast is disappearing. Kyle Korver can't buy a bucket, Boozer's as inconsistent as they come, Gibson's starry eyed, Noah's never recovered all the way to the player he was early in the year, and as a result of all this, Luol Deng's team is one loss away from being strangle-held. Chicago can't afford to trail 1-3, yet winning in Miami in Game 4 is looking mighty daunting. I hope they can figure it out, because I'm sick of all the failure in this year's playoffs. Other than a few series', the battles haven't been top notch, and struggles have never glared so bluntly in the NBA tournament, and they'll likely continue out East, with the Bulls unsure of what happens next.
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