Miami stages coming out party at Bulls expense

In keeping with their tendency to play down to the level of the competition the Chicago Bulls lost to the Miami Heat 96-84 at home in a nationally televised game.

In what seemed a harbinger of what was to come the Bulls opened the game with jump shots on offense followed by one on one play. Long rebounds off of missed jump shots led to numerous Heat fast breaks. The Bulls offensive choices were curious considering the fact that the Bulls enjoyed a size advantage with Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah… That was until rookie Hasan Whiteside entered the game.

The Heat have apparently caught lightning in a bottle with the seven foot former D league player who tallied 14 points 13 rebounds and 12, that’s right 12 blocked shots in just over 20 minutes of playing time.

The Bulls, who suffered from poor spacing and ball movement allowed Hasan to shut down the lane. Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 19 points Aaron Brooks added 17 and Pau Gasol chipped in 18 rebounds.
The recent swoon against teams like Utah, Orlando coupled with a blow out courtesy of the Cavaliers led to speculation that the Bulls coach had lost his locker room.

A leader among leaders ?

In an effort to stop the bleeding guard Derrick Rose reached for the mantle of leadership with his profanity laced challenge to his team who responded with two impressive victories over San Antonio and Dallas. In both games Derrick led the charge on offense early with good shooting.

Against Miami Derrick returned to his familiar habit of lowering the release point on his jump shot (0 for 6 on 3pt attempts).which really shouldn’t make much of a difference if it were not for the fact that he jumps nearly four feet into the air on each shot.

Will this Bulls team wait for Derrick to jump start them on offense or will they work to exploit the massive size advantage they enjoy most games ? Joakim Noah has been experiencing a little problem with making lay-ups. Do not despair though, it’s nothing more attempts won’t cure besides, a seven footer without a jump hook is not a good thing. (Jo’s insistence on using glass all the time inhibits his ability to develop the touch needed to shoot hook shots over taller players).

Did Thibs lose the locker room or ?
Prior to the San Antonio game the Bulls were engaged in the kind of back room intrigue that is normally reserved for teams like Sacramento and Brooklyn. They lost to teams they shouldn’t have and looked bad doing it.

The Bulls have a team that could win a championship but coach Tom Thibodeau alluded to an interesting point during all of the excitement and rumors of locker rooms lost and players tuning out and that was that there may be a cancer on the team and changes will be made..what? I guess that could mean that one or two or three players on the team are experiencing some issues with morale that may or may not have to do with how hard they are being pushed by their coach.

I suspect the Bulls are going through something that the franchise has not had too consider for the last 16 years.

This team, established as the little engine that could now has to balance a reputation for defense with new offensively capable players and a big man who is probably the best the team has had since Johnny Red Kerr.

The Bulls will be fine. Once they get this identity thing sorted out. Then again, coach Thib’s could be right.