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! 

There was the Bulls team I have been waiting for all Playoffs. Just the energy is what I am talking about. They brought it the whole game and I will say I am one to be hard on the UC crowd and they brought their "A" game. The night had a very 90s feel to the night where the Bulls were just flying around playing good sound basketball.

I had this awful feeling leading up to this game that the Bulls might come out flat and nervous and they did both. The media spent a good four days talking about how great they are and loving them and picking them make a Finals run. Today they had to live up to that and I think that got to them a bit.

They looked tight and nervous in the first few positions of the game. I think everyone did besides Rose who seems to never be rattled. What really surprised me was how they played as the game went on. Almost like they were waiting for the Pacers to suck, back off and let them take the game. That never came until 48 secs left.  Before that I pretty much mailed the game in after the Psycho T and one dunk.

@dabullcrapRyan

When you shoot like this you win. Bulls just got a reality check.

Then Rose pulls yet another rabbit out of his hat and the Bulls win. This is the one worry I had going into the playoffs. Are the Bulls like Lebron's Cavs where you stop everyone else and let Lebron or Rose do their thing. I hope not because we won't get close to sniffing the Finals if thats the case. I'm glad they figured out how to win but the holes are there and lets hope they find ways to plug them.

Deng late to the party.

As well as he played in the 4th he was late to this party. Doing nothing to help Rose in the first half. He played Granger great on defense but he needs to be the other guy to fill it up when Rose is resting. Lucky enough Deng hit some big 3s in the 4th and even grabbed a tech as he stood up for Rose. It was bizarre to see Deng grab a tech and get the crowd going. Not always in his nature. That leads me to the next thing.

Tough

I asked this question during the season. How tough is this team? We know they are easy to like and love but can they step on peoples throats? Can they get down and dirty? I really thought they were a bit soft today to be honest. The Pacers played physical ball while the Bulls didn't. This team needs to get tough and fast. People are now gunning for you. Bums like Foster want to knock knock your block off and "Goon" it up. And you better not back down like you did today for 3 plus quarters.

The Booz

I have supported him for all season. I know his short comings. I know his d sucks, I know he struggles vs bigger defenders but today he had terrible day. A melt down really. Boozer is one of those players that when things get tough or don't go his way(foul trouble) he goes into his shell. He gets worse. He won't forget it and bounce back. Thats what he did today. Gotta hand it to Thibs for sticking with him. After the and one dunk I would have pulled his ass. There were also mind boggling moments when he had guys like Rush on him in the post and he would pull out a fade away to the corner jumper when he could have pounded the dude for a lay up. He gotta be smarter and tougher if the Bulls are gonna do this thing. He gotta get to the hoop.



The Good
-Rose is with out a doubt the MVP
-Noah finding some bits of his game
-Korver was huge

The Bad
-The bench wasn't great
-CJ went back to Warrior CJ
-Rose's three point shot
-Pacer shooting %(I don't think it lasts)

The Ugly
-Carlos Boozer
-Brewers fear
-Don't let Jon Berry near a mic.
-Overall defensive effort

The Players

Noah: He wasn't great all game but he looked more like Noah. He got his normal double double and brought us energy. I think he is getting closer.
Boozer: A day he needs to forget. When shit its the fan he needs to respond better.
Deng: His inner emotion awoke. He had a few clutch shots.
Bogans: No where to be seen. Missed all three shots.
Rose: The only Bull to not get rattled. Hung in and showed how to lead.

The Bench Mob

Korver: His shot was on today and without we lose. He had some bad TO but he saved this teams ass.
Brewer: He almost made me eat my TV remote when he stole the ball at the end of the 3rd and could have attacked the rim on the fast break, he got scared and kicked out to a trailing Rose who had to take a tough three. If you don't want to score then get off the court. Nothing makes me more pissed then a hesitant player. Rant over.

Thomas: Was tough and kept the Bulls going with some hard plays. He was a huge signing.
Gibson: Shy and was nervous. Needs to shake it.
Watson: For whatever reason CJ went into jack a shot mode. This was the CJ I couldn't stand in the start of the season.
Asik: Didn't get much of a run.

Leave you with Noah overload....