Holmes' Morning After Blog: Monday Edition
By Laurence W. Holmes--
CHICAGO (WSCR) You can call it: "The Massacre On Madison." The Bulls dominated Miami. Defensively, the Heat were rattled by ball pressure and the Bulls crushed Miami on the boards (45-33). It felt big. The great part is that the moment didn't seem too big for the Bulls. They played a complete game with some ridiculous moments, highlighted by Taj Gibson.
Gibson posterized Dwyane (why do I have that Y in the wrong place?) Wade early on. That dunk was super-nasty for a couple of reasons:
1. It was two-handed over a player with good hops.
2. Taj got hit in the face during the dunk.
At the end of the game, Gibson had a tip dunk that may have been nastier. He went over and through teammate, Omer Asik and tomahawked it down. There were plenty of stars for the Bulls last night, but Taj's nine points felt like it was 30.
-As strange is this is going to sound, I thought the Heat did a good job on Derrick Rose. They doubled, trapped and rotated from side to side. The Bulls made Miami pay, by hitting three-pointers. The Bulls shot 48 percent from behind the arc and it made a difference. Eventually, Miami (especially LeBron James) was slow to double and tried to stay in a good position to close out on the shooter in the corner. In the fourth quarter it lead to Derrick Rose with an almost uncontested layup.
-If I was doing sports talk in Miami, I'd be killing Wade today. He looked like he was playing in slow motion all game.
-Bulls did a great job on James and Wade. There was a six-minute stretch when neither scored.
-The Bulls didn't do a great job by on Chris Bosh. He slipped pick and roll a lot. I don't know who rattled his cage, but he was the lone Heat player that seemed like he looked at the scouting report.
-The city is basketball crazy, but very quietly the White Sox put together a good West Coast trip. They won all three series and finished the trip 6-3. That's good news for the South Side 9. A lot of guys contributed and it was good to see Adam Dunn start to hit the ball. He hit .451 on the trip and raised his average from .149 to .216. Baby steps.
-Paul Konerko has had a bad year running the bases. He's usually one of the smartest guys on the diamond. Recently his base running has been more than questionable.
-Juan Pierre's game isn't very good right now, but his mustache is excellent! It's got a real Willie Tyler and Lester quality to it.
-As for the Cubs, is there anything as unsatisfying as a rain-shortened loss. It just feels awful.
-As the season goes on, Tyler Colvin is languishing. We all know that this is a rebuilding year, whether the Cubs want to admit it or not. Colvin needs more at-bats and more consistent playing time. The Cubs and Quade made room for all of the other young guys accept for Colvin. It's sad that now it looks like Colvin will be heading back to the minors.
I'll be talking Bulls and previewing the Sox homestand starting at 6:00 p.m. Follow me on Twitter: @lholmes670
