About a week ago, I wrote that Eastern Conference Finals belonged to the Bulls and the Heat didn’t have a chance because they wouldn’t be able to keep up with Chicago on the boards. And now the Heat are up 2-1. Game two showed how wrong I was, largely because I forgot about Udonis Haslem—or had no idea he was ready to come back—when I wrote that Miami didn’t have anyone on their roster to address the rebounding issue. They won the battle of the boards in game two, while LeBron James and Dwyane Wade played like we know they can. In game three, the Heat shot my rebounding theory to hell, winning by 11 while losing the battle of the boards by nine and taking 10 less shots than the Bulls did.
The Bulls didn’t score more than 85 points in either loss, which isn’t going to be good enough for the rest of the series. In game two, LeBron James frustrated Derrick Rose in the fourth quarter, Rose couldn’t shoot over him or get around him. In game three, LeBron and the traps that the Heat threw at the MVP continuously subdued Rose. LeBron’s been a one-man wrecking crew on defense, locking down Rose outside the three-point line down and blocking dunks at the rim. He and Joel Anthony have been able to stack the paint against the Bulls by themselves, making interior scoring for Derrick Rose and company a chore, where they relied on a penetration-score or penetration-pass-score for easy points in the previous series (and all season before that).
The Bulls had success using Joakim Noah as a point forward, a passing option out of the pick and roll, but in game three Erik Spoelstra and the Heat made defensive adjustments that poured sand into the gears of the Chicago offense, grinding it to a halt while the Heat kept on rolling and pulled away.
Chris Bosh—a catchall for everyone’s complaints about the Heat, no matter what they are—has been their leading scorer in two of the first three games and has shut everyone up by eating Carlos Boozer’s lunch on both ends of the floor. Either that, or he’s channeling the spirit of Bob McAdoo while taking the world of tongue celebrations to new heights. Dwyane Wade, meanwhile, hasn’t really had an outstanding Dwyane Wade game yet. His game-two effort (24 points, nine rebounds) was key to the Heat’s win, but we all know Wade is capable of much more than that, which is a scary thought if you’re a Bulls fan.
—Photo AP/Charles Rex Arbogast