After watching the game over its pretty clear that Thibs and the Bulls are going with a "OMG THERE IS LEBRON OR WADE! GET EM!"(forget Bosh, let him score) strategy and it worked to a tee. The Bulls are allowed to do this for a few reasons.

1.Most the Bulls bigs can switch on picks. This a giant advantage in basketball when your bigs can switch picks with out a whole lot of worry.
2.The Bulls play help defense on a string. Meaning that the Bulls roatate and move with out much communication. They are one with in each other.
3.Active. Having hands up on shots, hands on the ball, ball pressure. All this adds up over the course of a game. We saw this in Game 1 as the game went on it wore on the Miami Heat.

Pictures

Here Wade comes off a curl and Bulls show Anthony no respect leaving him for the dump off. Deng is still glued to Lebron and Bosh and left for his jumper. Wade is met by 3 Bulls. He opts for the drop off to Anthony where Noah makes a quick rotation for a block that goes out of bounds. This is just one example of how the Bulls have many Luxuries because of Noah's skill set.

Here you can see Noah step back into the lane and help Deng deny the Ball to Lebron. I saw this many times when the Heat tried find him on the post. The Ball was swung to Bosh.... VICTORY! The little things like that add up and is a big factor into winning basketball games. Limiting touches of the best player on the court.

Wade is covered by Boozer,Bogans and Noah is thinking about coming. Rose has to stay with Anthony and let Bibby go. The Bulls are willing to let the Heat's other players win the game which is a great way to play since they are pretty much terrible. Wade passes it to Bibby who does score but the Bulls will live with it and force Wade not to find any rhythm.

WOW... Lebron took one dribble to the lane and the Bulls go "GET EM!!". Four Bulls to Lebron and Rose lets Chalmers wonder around the 3pt line with out much worry. Lebron tries to drop it off to Bosh but the ball is tipped out of bounds. Thibs is selling out on Lebron and the % works in the Bulls favor.

Here are one of the many defensive 3 sec calls that Boozer has received this post season. They make Bulls fans wanna put their head in a microwave. Once again you can see all the over help the Bulls are giving Lebron. Boozer is thinking the right idea but before Lebron even got below the FT line Boozer was in the paint giving help to Bosh who has now moved. This defensive 3 sec call was a bit fast but the right call.

Here you can See Asik leave Jamaal with out giving much of a care(can't blame him..dude can barley walk). The Bulls over load again on Lebron. CJ loses defensive awareness and lets Jamaal slip under the Hoop. Lebron is a great passer and finds Jamaal under the hoop where he struggles to dunk it as he misses his first attempt but does find the score on the second try. If I had to guess the Jamaal Magloire experiment is over.

At the end of the first Wade tries to go one on five and fails. Brewer was very active(like we talked about at the top) and got his hand on the ball many times. Noah has to worry about no one as he comes up to help. Deng is ready to come to as Wade tries to get a grip on the Ball. The Ball slips out of bounds and it goes back to the Heat. Plays like these frustrate Wade all game.

On the next play the Bulls have the clock on their side as they trap Wade in the corner and leave Miller. This just smart basketball as Wade has to adjust to just get the shot off. The Shot is wide right and the end of the first. I think Wade is beyond frustrated at this point as the Bulls are doubling and tripling his every move.

You can see here where Lebron finds the ball in the post and is met by three Bulls. Noah is gonna let Anthony wonder away every time. Taj's man Bosh(not pictured) doesn't help Lebron much as he stands and watches out of range for shot at the top of the three point line. Lebron has to throw it out to Bibby which is a win every time for the Bulls. Where Rose covers Bibby.

Once again Asik gives little care about Jamaal has he helps Brewer box in Wade. Taj is fronting Bosh so Wade has no choice other then to swing the ball to James Jones. Like I have said before its the small little things like this that no one notices that win basketball games. Limiting touches and players shots.

On this play Lebron comes up and Noah just waits for Lebron leaving Bosh alone(again). Once Lebron drives he sticks his big mitts on the ball knocking it away. Noah dives and saves the Ball and the Bulls are off and running. Noah shows again what makes him so special on the defensive end. Lebron makes the mistake of forcing the issue. He forgets that Noah isn't Jermaine O'Neal and he gotta respect his help.

So whats it all mean?
This just a few plays from the first half. The pictures shows what 48 mins of this can do to your offense. How it might throw a wrench in your plans. While it did help that the Bulls offense was also hitting. But this kind of defense should be the standard all series. The thing that the Bulls have be aware of is the Big three's adjustments. They are smart players and seeing this stuff all the time will cause them to figure parts of it out over a 7 game series but the Bulls are so good at it that I think this could be a major reason the Bulls can win this series.

Now this isn't defensive but all..... TAJ GIBSON OWNING YOUR SOUL!
Taj getting ready to get out his pogo stick.

Magloire give Taj a little boost!

OHHHHHHHH! Watson with the best seat in the house.

THAT JUST HAPPENED DE...YANE.... WADE.


OH MY GOD THE TAJZILLA IS LOOSE ON MIAMI!