Defense, defense, defense.
That's the theme of the series, and that's what champions are made of.
How many times have you heard players, coaches, etc say that "defense wins championships". Countless. It's been proven over time that the better defensive teams make it the farthest when the playoffs roll around.
Here we are, in the Eastern Conference Finals with two of the best teams in the NBA in most defensive categories. Both teams with head coaches that have been preaching that defense will get them where they want to be, NBA Champions.
Obviously one team will have to lose, and one team will move on to the Championship round. But, nobody is playing better defense than the Miami Heat. The reason they are up 2-1 in the series, is defense.
They Miami Heat have taken away the MVP in Derrick Rose, and forced the other Bulls players to step up. They flat out haven't. How can you expect to beat any team when you go on to shoot 41.6% in Game 3, and 34.1% in Game 2? You can't, and you won't. Give the Miami Heat team as a whole credit for coming up with a game plan to slow down Derrick Rose. This coming after losing all 3 regular season games to the Bulls, and Game 1 of the series.This series turned around for the Heat when they bought back into the idea that defense would get them wins, and since then they are 2-0.
The final score of Game 3 was 96-85, with the "Big Three" scoring the bulk of points, racking up a combined 73 points.
Chris Bosh dominated in Game 3. Bosh scored 34 points, while shooting 13-18 from the floor and 8-10 from the line.Lebron James went on to almost record another triple double, netting 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 10 assists. Lebron only shot the ball 13 times, but the biggest part of Lebron's game today was the fact that he had 0 turnovers while running the point position in crucial times.
On the Chicago Bulls side, Carlos Boozer had his best performance of the series with 26 points, and 17 rebounds. Boozer's performance was obviously not enough to help the Bulls get the victory, but is a positive sign for the Bulls, who haven't seen much production from him in the Playoffs.
The fact still remains that Derrick Rose has to be the MVP he was named for being in the regular season. Head Coach Tom Thibodeau has got to come up with a better plan on the offensive side other than the same old pick-and-roll option they've been running. The Heat have been keying in on Rose, doubling him off the pick-and-roll and getting him into positions where he has to give up the ball and hope one of his other teammates makes a play. That's not how the Bulls got into the Playoffs, and are ineffective when Rose has the ball taken out of his hands. Rose doesn't need the ball all the time necessarily just to score, but to keep the Heat defense on their toes and get others involved. The Bulls change that, and they could change things around offensively.
Defensively for the Bulls, they haven't been bad at all. Holding the Heat to 82, and 85 in the first two games of the series. It's when the Bulls give up over 90 that they have a hard time keeping the game close, especially with their offense struggling mightily.
The series isn't over obviously, but some major changes need to happen for the Chicago Bulls if they want to go back to Chicago with the series tied up at 2 games a piece.
For the Miami Heat. Just keep playing defense, it's going to get you to the final round if you keep it up.
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