Posts Tagged ‘NBA Eastern Conference Finals’

One More To Go

May 25th, 2011 by Scott Dargis | Comments Off on One More To Go | Filed in Basketball, General

Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals was tied with just over seven seconds left. The visiting Chicago Bulls had the ball with a chance to win the game. You knew that the MVP of the regular season Derrick Rose was going to take the last shot. The question was what kind of shot was he going to take?

Rose had shown his blazing speed throughout the game with prime examples being the fast break dunk and when he posterized Joel Anthony, both in the second quarter. However instead of trying to drive the lane he tried to get separation on Lebron James and shoot a fadeaway jumper from the high post. It clanked off of the rim and harmlessly fell to the floor, much like the Bulls did in the overtime session.

While Derrick Rose is the MVP of the league, the most valuable player in this series has been Lebron James. His versatility in this series has been unbelievable, whenever a big play is being made James is sure to be right in the mix and not just on the offensive end.

Two of the most overlooked aspects in James’s game are; his passing ability and his on ball defense. He has been the catalyst for many of the good looks that Chris Bosh and Mike Miller had in Game 4. He made Miller the focal point of the scoring in a key stretch of the fourth quarter. Not only is that having faith in the bench guys, but smart basketball because the Bulls were not putting any pressure on him. Miller finished with 12 points and 9 rebounds.

While Derrick Rose was clearly the best option to take the last shot for the Bulls, I did not like the way that he went about it. He has to understand that no matter how much separation he got from James, the size differential would make up for it. James’s 6’ 8” frame and 7’ wingspan is going to make up for the 4 feet that Rose got away from James. Rose should have used his speed to try and get to the basket, I understand that you can’t let an official decide a game, but he would have gotten a better look for his skill set and possibly a foul.

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Trouble in the Windy City

May 23rd, 2011 by Scott Dargis | Comments Off on Trouble in the Windy City | Filed in Basketball, General

 

For the Bulls Game 3 featured a lot of what ifs and what could have been. For the Heat Game 3 was a coming out party for Chris Bosh. After taking abuse from the media and his peers all season about his soft play, Bosh finally showed everyone why the nickname is the Big 3, not Batman and Robin. Also, once again Lebron James closed out the Bulls and showed why he is quickly becoming a tremendous scoring threat at the end of the game.

Bosh controlled the game at least on the offensive end for the heat for most of the game. After starting out the game 0-for-3, he poured in 12 out of his next 14 shots.

One of the reasons that Bosh was labeled soft throughout this season was due to his reliance on the jump shot from the high post. There were numerous times throughout the season where he would take more jump shots than Dwayne Wade. Bosh is very dangerous from the high post, but that was not what he was brought in to do.

As he struggled to find his role on the team the Heat also struggled to figure out how to manage their superstars and the rest of the team correctly. Coach Erik Spolstra was thrown under the bus for how the Heat managed games mostly on the offensive end.

The bus driver must have spotted Spolstra laying down on the road and gave him some advice because the way that the Heat handled the best defense in the playoffs on Sunday night was downright impressive. Bosh not only killed them from the high post, but he finally started driving the lane with authority, he is incredibly dangerous when he can be a cutter and it makes it that much more difficult to defend when you have Lebron hitting him with one pretty pass after another.

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