QUOTE
A funny thing happened to the Miami Heat on their way to meet up with the Pistons in the Conference Finals… The Chicago Bulls put a roadblock in their way.
Once again in Game 4, the Bulls defense which led the NBA in defensive field goal percentage shutdown the Heat, and made them work to get what they could on offense. After scoring 111 and 115 respectively in games one and two in Miami, the Bulls found home court cooking to their liking and limited the Heat to 90 and 87 points in games 3 and 4.
The story of Game 4 was once again the shutdown of Shaquille ONeal who was put into foul trouble by an aggressive Bulls defense. The much maligned Tyson Chandler who alone drew 3 fouls on ONeal, including a key offensive foul which bench the big man for the rest of the first half, with at the 6:13 mark of the second quarter. Chandler even drew praise from ABC announcer and Hall of Fame center Bill Walton, who asked if someone with as small of a stat line as Chandler’s 1 point and 3 rebound contributions for game 4 had even been so important to the outcome of a game.
The Bulls again ran up big leads, but had trouble closing out all quarters except for the 4th. Miami closed out the first quarters on 9-0, 9-0, and 7-2 runs respectively to keep the Heat within striking distance for the stretch run. Miami even managed to get a late one point lead, before the Bulls knuckled down, and behind a huge 28 foot 3 point swish from Kirk Hinrich as the shot clock expired, delivered the fatal knockout blow, to defeat Miami and send the series back to Florida tied at two games each.
For the game the Bulls were led by the big performance of Agentina’s own Andres Nocioni who led all scorers with 24 points, Ben Gordon gave 23 points, and Kirk Hinrich gave 21 to give the Bulls 3 scores with 20+ points on the day. Miami was led by Antoine Walker’s 21 points and Dwayne Wade’s 20, which was only on 8-19 shooting. The key stat of the game was the Bulls 31 trips to the free throw line, to Miami’s only 5.
The moment of this game that might have series implications was towards the end of the 4th quarter when Tyson Chandler was in the fray battling for a rebound, and he came down and gave what at the time seemed like a scary ankle twist. Chandler was unable to walk off of the floor under his own power, instead being carried off by the training staff and back up Luke Schenscher. Initially most fans feared the worst, but by today the word had come out that Tyson was planning to play in Game 5, Tuesday night from Miami.
If not the Chandler injury, another moment that jumps out is Gary Payton and Dwayne Wade’s argument in the huddle during a time out in the first half. Payton was said to be upset at Wade for driving into traffic and then throwing the ball away while trying to get the ball to Payton. It took Shaquille ONeal to separate the two players.
Right now the series stands tied at two games each, with the series coming down to who can win two out of the next three games. The key for the Bulls in Game 5 is to not get down big at any point, and keep the defensive pressure up on the Miami Heat. They cannot allow them to get back to the highflying, open shooting act that ran the Bulls off of the floor in games one and two.
Once again in Game 4, the Bulls defense which led the NBA in defensive field goal percentage shutdown the Heat, and made them work to get what they could on offense. After scoring 111 and 115 respectively in games one and two in Miami, the Bulls found home court cooking to their liking and limited the Heat to 90 and 87 points in games 3 and 4.
The story of Game 4 was once again the shutdown of Shaquille ONeal who was put into foul trouble by an aggressive Bulls defense. The much maligned Tyson Chandler who alone drew 3 fouls on ONeal, including a key offensive foul which bench the big man for the rest of the first half, with at the 6:13 mark of the second quarter. Chandler even drew praise from ABC announcer and Hall of Fame center Bill Walton, who asked if someone with as small of a stat line as Chandler’s 1 point and 3 rebound contributions for game 4 had even been so important to the outcome of a game.
The Bulls again ran up big leads, but had trouble closing out all quarters except for the 4th. Miami closed out the first quarters on 9-0, 9-0, and 7-2 runs respectively to keep the Heat within striking distance for the stretch run. Miami even managed to get a late one point lead, before the Bulls knuckled down, and behind a huge 28 foot 3 point swish from Kirk Hinrich as the shot clock expired, delivered the fatal knockout blow, to defeat Miami and send the series back to Florida tied at two games each.
For the game the Bulls were led by the big performance of Agentina’s own Andres Nocioni who led all scorers with 24 points, Ben Gordon gave 23 points, and Kirk Hinrich gave 21 to give the Bulls 3 scores with 20+ points on the day. Miami was led by Antoine Walker’s 21 points and Dwayne Wade’s 20, which was only on 8-19 shooting. The key stat of the game was the Bulls 31 trips to the free throw line, to Miami’s only 5.
The moment of this game that might have series implications was towards the end of the 4th quarter when Tyson Chandler was in the fray battling for a rebound, and he came down and gave what at the time seemed like a scary ankle twist. Chandler was unable to walk off of the floor under his own power, instead being carried off by the training staff and back up Luke Schenscher. Initially most fans feared the worst, but by today the word had come out that Tyson was planning to play in Game 5, Tuesday night from Miami.
If not the Chandler injury, another moment that jumps out is Gary Payton and Dwayne Wade’s argument in the huddle during a time out in the first half. Payton was said to be upset at Wade for driving into traffic and then throwing the ball away while trying to get the ball to Payton. It took Shaquille ONeal to separate the two players.
Right now the series stands tied at two games each, with the series coming down to who can win two out of the next three games. The key for the Bulls in Game 5 is to not get down big at any point, and keep the defensive pressure up on the Miami Heat. They cannot allow them to get back to the highflying, open shooting act that ran the Bulls off of the floor in games one and two.