Celtics Weren't The Only Ones To Choke Sunday

by Jeff Clark on Jan 30, 2012 1:00 AM EST in Boston Celtics News & Links

The Eastern Conference Bulls were playing the Heat Sunday night and choked away the game. It wasn't allowing a 12-0 run at the end of a game against a lottery team, but that isn't going to make Derrick Rose feel any better.

James, Heat escape with 97-93 win over Bulls - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

The odds had to overwhelmingly be in Chicago’s favor. Down by a point with 22.7 seconds left, with Derrick Rose heading to the line to shoot a pair of free throws. The reigning NBA MVP. He was a perfect 29 for 29 from the foul line in the fourth quarter this season. As if this moment needed extra significance, it was coming against the Miami Heat, the team that downed Rose and the Bulls in last season’s Eastern Conference finals by taking the series’ last four games.

Rose missed the first.

Missed the second, too.

And missed a potentially game-tying jumper with 3.7 seconds left to boot, as somehow the Heat held on for a wild 97-93 win on Sunday.

Win some, lose some. It happens.

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Well...

the Bulls have been excellent during the first part of the season….
while the Celtics has been frustratingly average…a sub .500 team.

by jess m on Jan 30, 2012 1:35 AM EST reply actions

And it's a little bit different to choke to the Heat than to choke to the Cavs

Just a LEETLE bit.

by chicagomaroon on Jan 30, 2012 1:43 AM EST reply actions

and Rose is still young

he will only get better .

by elvyn on Jan 30, 2012 1:44 AM EST up reply actions

In the end the Bulls haven't addressed their biggest problem

Their offense that relies so much on Derrick Rose. Their 2nd and 3rd best players are both great at defense (Deng and Noah) but Deng being the second option does not work on a championship team. Boozer is completely unreliable on both sides of the ball when it matters, sometimes Taj Gibson takes his minutes. Wade was off today, Lebron just went crazy. Even Bosh is better than anyone on the Bulls except for Rose. I know you can’t compete with the Heat in terms of star power, but Rose needs more legit help. Not washed up or choker help (Richard Hamilton/Boozer).

by kg2128 on Jan 30, 2012 1:55 AM EST reply actions

Their offense that relies so much on Derrick Rose.

In the second half, they did for sure, but he came through also. The set a few picks and let Rose drive and break down a defense offense is pretty good because he is the best a doing that and finishing at the rim (cant do that for a whole game but it works in spurts), but Boozer is not a post up option anymore for the most part it appears. He has hit the old man wall and does not take it to the rim strong or even post up all that much and settles for the jumper for the most part and he is still their best post up big man, Noah can do some of that but not a whole lot. If that trend does not change, the Bulls will be more of a perimeter oriented/long drives to the hoop type team which is not always reliable (tough shots and jump shots don’t always fall).

They do crash the boards and get plenty of offensive boards usually to get second and third chances to make up for things, but Boozer was getting to the rim last year and getting post position which helped take pressure off Rose and keep the Bulls more balanced.

(Martin Landau) Bela Lugosi: How dare that a****** bring up Karloff? You think it takes talent to do Frankenstein? It's all makeup and grunting.

--From the movie Ed Wood

GET TO THE RIM HEAT (and SKY)! ATTACK THE PAINT!

by mjtig on Jan 30, 2012 2:50 AM EST up reply actions

Rose played as well as you can ask of him and the Bulls always rebound and play great d

They just haven’t gotten a good Robin to Rose’s Batman. Or if they are gonna go 1 superstar+lots of depth they need a solid 2 guard that is a good playmaker off the dribble, and it has to be someone relatively young. The Bulls just seem ideally built to be crushed by the Heat. In the 4th quarter it’s Derrick Rose 1v5 and Lebron/Wade can slow him down enough so they don’t have to over help. That means others have to step up, sometimes it happens but odds are it won’t. It’s not like they have a post player to take advantage of the Heat lacking a true center.

by kg2128 on Jan 31, 2012 5:16 AM EST up reply actions

Lets just hope

Right, win some, lose some. Hopefully the recent 4 game streak is not the only bright spot of the season for the Celtics.

by getthat18now on Jan 30, 2012 2:08 AM EST reply actions

One small bone to pick

I don’t see the Cavs as a lottery team. They’re 8-11 (Cs are 9-10). They have what looks like very good potential, with a guy who could easily end up a major star in Irving.

One of the reasons we lost this game may have been the general impression that the Cavs are a terrible team, making it more of a trap game than it should have been. They were very bad last year. They’re not now.

by JR99 on Jan 30, 2012 2:48 AM EST reply actions