Muller: Bulls Beat Themselves Against Heat
By Shawn Muller-
(CBS) For many Bulls fans, Sunday's matchup against Heat had been circled on their calendars' since Miami eliminated Chicago from the playoffs last season, and, although Chicago lost to Miami 97-93 down in South Florida, I want all Bulls fans to take a deep breath, put the vase down, hug your dog, and exhale.
You can be disappointed that the Bulls couldn't get the win, but in no way should you feel anger. Miami didn't prove that they were "better" than Chicago.
The Bulls simply beat themselves.
I don't want to get in to the "inadvertent whistle" argument, and I don't want to get in to the subsequent jump ball where it appeared LeBron James touched the ball on the way up which—if the right call were made—would have resulted in a Bulls ball on the inbound at center court.
Blaming the loss on either of those two factors would be making excuses, and I don't make excuses.
Excuses are for losers.
The way I see it, the Bulls did everything they could have to give the Heat that game. Miami didn't "wow" me with their superior athletes. Miami didn't "blow me away" with their shooting.
The Bulls looked every bit equal as the Heat, and although I never like seeing Chicago lose any game, all I have to do is look back to last season to realize that yesterday doesn't matter one bit moving forward. Chicago beat Miami in all three regular season meetings last season, but that didn't matter in the playoffs.
Everyone around the league knew the Heat and the Bulls were the two best teams in the Eastern Conference last year, and everyone knows they are the two best teams in the East—and possibly the NBA—this season.
Consider this:
The Bulls were playing without the services of Luol Deng, shot a pedestrian 27 percent from behind the arc, turned the ball over 15 times, shot 71 percent from the charity stripe, and still, they found themselves trailing 94-93--with a chance to take the lead-- as Derrick Rose approached the free throw line with 22 seconds left in the game where D-Rose has been clutch all season, converting on 28 consecutive fourth quarter free throws in a row.
Derrick misses both, Miami ends up winning.
End of story.
I have said—and I will continue to say until proven otherwise—that the Bulls are the most complete team in the NBA when healthy. Long-term health of the team is what should scare Bulls fans right now, not some loss in the 22nd game of the regular season. Given the amount of injuries, Tom Thibodeau deserves a ton of credit for the job he has done in guiding the Bulls to an Eastern Conference best record of 17-5. In fact, if I had a vote for coach of the year, Thibs would get my vote for the second straight year.
Keeping this team at the top of the standings with injuries to Derrick Rose, Richard Hamilton, Taj Gibson, C.J. Watson, and Luol Deng thus far, cannot be discredited.
A game handed over to the Miami Heat on the last Sunday in January can be.
Shawn Muller has lived in the great city of Chicago for 7 years. He is a 2002 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and, in October of 2010, Shawn received his certificate in radio broadcasting. In his free time, Shawn enjoys spending time with his wife Melissa and 3 year old daughter Ava, catching any live sporting event, and traveling. Check out his radio show, Grab Some Bench with Muller and Bangser" every Thursday night at 8:30 P.M., at www.blogtalkradio.com/spmuller24. Read more of his blogs here.
