Bulls @ Miami, Friday 4/1, 8:00 EST

[Force-X45]

Hard to win when your best player is playing injured

Our best player wasn't playing at all. The main issues with the Heat are their lack of size and having no one to step up outside of the big three.

[DWadeno3]

It really sucks what happened to the Bulls fan, such glory and pride for winning a regular season game. They should honestly worry about Rose being healthy and not choking again and getting shut down by LeBron. They talk so much sh*t here and if we say anything in their board we get suspended.. lol. They probably get salty that Westbrook is so much better than Rose and with Rose out, their ball movement actually beats us. Ball Stopper, imo.

Why is LeBron playing so much and Wade gets to much rest sometimes. His jumper is going and Spo takes him out...

That's funny. They do have better ball movement without rose and ball movement is one of the key ways to beat miami.

As for wade's jumper. He could make 10 in a row and i would still yell no if he spotted up for another. His ark and form is awful.

No, just no. Rondo, Ronnie Brewer, Tyreke Evans, Jamaal Tinsley, Tony Allen, those guys have awful form and arc on their shots, Wade doesn't. He's not a great shooter, but his mechanics are far from awful. And if one of the aforementioned players hit ten in a row, awful form or not, I'd never yell no at them for shooting another shot. That'd just be horrible coaching. Wade's shooting has not been an issue this year anyways and one of his few bright spots so far. He's shooting 45.2% from 10-15 feet, a career high, and 39% from 16-23 feet, which is solid but I'd like to see it go above 40%. The area he's struggling from is from 3-9 feet. This was usually always a 50%+ area for him and after going down to 43% from that area last season, he's sitting at 37.5% right now. He's not the super athlete he used to be, but still strong, athletic and crafty enough to be a much better finisher around the basket. Sometimes it seems to be more a lack of focus or an attempt of drawing a foul instead of just trying to make the shot. Last night's blown layup on the break against Deng was evidence for that.

[FlashKing]

Hard to win when your best player is playing injured

Our best player wasn't playing at all. The main issues with the Heat are their lack of size and having no one to step up outside of the big three.

What else is new? That's been the case since day 1. We'll find a way to overcome that like we always do. Get better D-Rose.

[Lord Hades]

Thx for having my back guys.

I think this lose will be good for us. Bosh and Wade publicly speaking out against small-ball is their way to make sure Spo adjusts. i expect changes soon.

Spo adjusts.

[imchillin]

Lol I find it funny as soon as the heat lose to the bulls they get serious, every year

Letting that bum boozer go off on us should be a crime

[Zasterror]

Thx for having my back guys.

I think this lose will be good for us. Bosh and Wade publicly speaking out against small-ball is their way to make sure Spo adjusts. i expect changes soon.

Spo adjusts.

too

[Tuff Gong]

Right now this isn't a top 5 basketball team in the NBA. Period.

[Mutnt]

Jorts is awful. He is a below average shooter, not very good at rebounding and slow. I wouldn't want him taking minutes away from any of the core players like miller, anthony or UD.

Tonight, battier should not have been out there in the 4th, he was affraid to shoot the ball and he is not a very good rebounder. Miller should have been out there. We need rebounding and aside from lebron and UD, miller is probably our best rebounder.

Bosh has been a massive disappointment on the boards this season. ray allen had more rebounds than him tonight.

Kmart is done. there is a reason he is sitting on his couch right now.

Another thing about tonight was lebron was visibly not himself. not saying if he was 100% we win this game, but i would say for the first time in a heat uni he was visablly not himself physically.

And although you can't teach height, you also don't need to be 7'0 to box out and rebound the ball. This team is on cruise control till the playoffs.

Other than that wake me up when the playoffs start.

Core players like Miller, Anthony and UD? AHAHAHA, you must be deluding yourself sir. Those players don't sniff the floor in 90% of NBA teams and dare I say it, 0% of NBA contenders. Zero percent. NADA, Zip.
They are all terrible and the only reason they're playing is because the Heat have no other players. Miller is so banged up he thought about retirement last year, now the only thing he can do is wait in the corner to get a wide open three, which he eventually misses, except for every 6th, 7th game when he gets hot (but that doesn't offset how bad he's damaging the Heat every game). Anthony is in this league only because of his above average defense, but because his offense is at least 5 times as bad, he doesn't even get much minutes in Miami who have an extreme lack of Centers. UD is washed up, he plays tough, I'll give him that, but even in his prime he wasn't much of a talent. Now he's thrice as worse at least. They are lucky enough that LeBron gets them wide open shots, but even those are progressively missed or fumbled (in Joel Anthony's case).

Now that we got that out of the way, on to your 2nd paragraph. I agree that Shane had no business playing big minutes yesterday. With the way he was playing (is playing several games now to be exact), I was praying that Haslem returns back on court every time, or that Shard magically appears on the court. But Miller? You gotta be joking? Miller is an average rebounder, which is still better than Shane yes, but gets murdered in so many other ways. He's slow as shizz, and can't defend anyone.

Bosh isn't a disappointment on the boards. As therskin or somebody else pointed out in some other thread. He isn't a rebounding juggernaut and never has been in his career. He's mediocre mostly and just can't expect him to snatch up board after board, because he's simply not capable. Especially against superb rebounding front-courts like Chicago's. Let it go, Bosh is what he is. He gets some of the boards, but he can't fight with the big boys.

I keep seeing this notion: ''K-Mart is done.'', ''There's a reason he's not playing''. Yes, and that reason is because other teams don't need him. Not because he actually can't play. Even Sheed was sitting on his couch for 2 seasons, and decided that he would come back. I think he's not hurting the Knicks? I mean seriously, think very hard on this one... how many teams have a worse front-court rotation than Miami? I don't think it's even close. There are a lot of players on the market that would suit a lot of teams in different situations. Is K-Mart really that big of a risk? At this point, I'll take anybody with around 7ft that can rebound... let alone a beast like K-Mart.

How can you say LeBron was ''visibly'' not himself, when this was one of his better games attacking the rim, I've seen this whole season. He was very quick of the dribble and penetrated beautifully all night. Not to mention the alley-oop when he fell from heavens... I'm not saying he wasn't banged up a bit, but it sure didn't seem to bother him much on his quickness and elevation.

Obviously, you don't NEED to be big to box out, but you then NEED to be strong, quick and willing, HEAT players aren't any of those. Not just in this game, in most of the games this season...

Miami is surely not playing as hard as teams like Chicago like to in the regular season. But they are sure as hell not cruising. Unless, you call LeBron playing 40+ minutes every night carrying this team to a respectable record cruising...

[Pimpwerx]

Hard to win when your best player is playing injured

Our best player wasn't playing at all. The main issues with the Heat are their lack of size and having no one to step up outside of the big three.

Then how did the frontcourt of Bosh, Joel and Haslem manage to outrebound the bigger Bulls in the 2011 ECF Game2? The Bulls were a bigger roster back then too. Z, Damp and Magloire didn't play that entire series, so it was the same trio that we've been going with this season that managed to pass the test. The Bulls only beasted us on the boards twice that series. The other 3 games we kept it very close. Length/size isn't our roster's problem. People saying that have amnesia. PEACE.

[imchillin]

Harlem of 2011 is not haslem of 2013, Joel doesn't even play as much and rebounds even worse. He's lebron height for crying out loud. Why do you struggle to see these things? @pimpwerx

[Pimpwerx]

Harlem of 2011 is not haslem of 2013, Joel doesn't even play as much and rebounds even worse. He's lebron height for crying out loud. Why do you struggle to see these things? @pimpwerx

You telling me that Haslem of the 2011 ECF was better than Haslem now? Haslem of 2011 just came off lisfranc foot surgery, in case you forgot. PEACE.

[imchillin]

Harlem of 2011 is not haslem of 2013, Joel doesn't even play as much and rebounds even worse. He's lebron height for crying out loud. Why do you struggle to see these things? @pimpwerx

You telling me that Haslem of the 2011 ECF was better than Haslem now? Haslem of 2011 just came off lisfranc foot surgery, in case you forgot. PEACE.

they both weren't that good and hes worse now. I don't mind him in limited minutes. hes tough but i'm not gonna pretend hes not mediocre when he is. you keep being delusional all you want

[Heat_Fan_87]

Jorts is awful. He is a below average shooter, not very good at rebounding and slow. I wouldn't want him taking minutes away from any of the core players like miller, anthony or UD.

Tonight, battier should not have been out there in the 4th, he was affraid to shoot the ball and he is not a very good rebounder. Miller should have been out there. We need rebounding and aside from lebron and UD, miller is probably our best rebounder.

Bosh has been a massive disappointment on the boards this season. ray allen had more rebounds than him tonight.

Kmart is done. there is a reason he is sitting on his couch right now.

Another thing about tonight was lebron was visibly not himself. not saying if he was 100% we win this game, but i would say for the first time in a heat uni he was visablly not himself physically.

And although you can't teach height, you also don't need to be 7'0 to box out and rebound the ball. This team is on cruise control till the playoffs.

Other than that wake me up when the playoffs start.

Core players like Miller, Anthony and UD? AHAHAHA, you must be deluding yourself sir. Those players don't sniff the floor in 90% of NBA teams and dare I say it, 0% of NBA contenders. Zero percent. NADA, Zip.
They are all terrible and the only reason they're playing is because the Heat have no other players. Miller is so banged up he thought about retirement last year, now the only thing he can do is wait in the corner to get a wide open three, which he eventually misses, except for every 6th, 7th game when he gets hot (but that doesn't offset how bad he's damaging the Heat every game). Anthony is in this league only because of his above average defense, but because his offense is at least 5 times as bad, he doesn't even get much minutes in Miami who have an extreme lack of Centers. UD is washed up, he plays tough, I'll give him that, but even in his prime he wasn't much of a talent. Now he's thrice as worse at least. They are lucky enough that LeBron gets them wide open shots, but even those are progressively missed or fumbled (in Joel Anthony's case).

Now that we got that out of the way, on to your 2nd paragraph. I agree that Shane had no business playing big minutes yesterday. With the way he was playing (is playing several games now to be exact), I was praying that Haslem returns back on court every time, or that Shard magically appears on the court. But Miller? You gotta be joking? Miller is an average rebounder, which is still better than Shane yes, but gets murdered in so many other ways. He's slow as shizz, and can't defend anyone.

Bosh isn't a disappointment on the boards. As therskin or somebody else pointed out in some other thread. He isn't a rebounding juggernaut and never has been in his career. He's mediocre mostly and just can't expect him to snatch up board after board, because he's simply not capable. Especially against superb rebounding front-courts like Chicago's. Let it go, Bosh is what he is. He gets some of the boards, but he can't fight with the big boys.

I keep seeing this notion: ''K-Mart is done.'', ''There's a reason he's not playing''. Yes, and that reason is because other teams don't need him. Not because he actually can't play. Even Sheed was sitting on his couch for 2 seasons, and decided that he would come back. I think he's not hurting the Knicks? I mean seriously, think very hard on this one... how many teams have a worse front-court rotation than Miami? I don't think it's even close. There are a lot of players on the market that would suit a lot of teams in different situations. Is K-Mart really that big of a risk? At this point, I'll take anybody with around 7ft that can rebound... let alone a beast like K-Mart.

How can you say LeBron was ''visibly'' not himself, when this was one of his better games attacking the rim, I've seen this whole season. He was very quick of the dribble and penetrated beautifully all night. Not to mention the alley-oop when he fell from heavens... I'm not saying he wasn't banged up a bit, but it sure didn't seem to bother him much on his quickness and elevation.

Obviously, you don't NEED to be big to box out, but you then NEED to be strong, quick and willing, HEAT players aren't any of those. Not just in this game, in most of the games this season...

Miami is surely not playing as hard as teams like Chicago like to in the regular season. But they are sure as hell not cruising. Unless, you call LeBron playing 40+ minutes every night carrying this team to a respectable record cruising...

I don't know how to multi quote, so i will just go with some bullets

-MIller and UD are core players. When you have wade, bron and bosh on the floor you don't need a whole lot from your role players. MIller provides the spacing the offense needs and UD provides the defense and rebounding the team needs.

-Not sure why you hate miller so much. Unwarranted hate is all.

-Calling k mart a beast on the boards? That makes me seriously question your knowledge. Look up his advanced numbers and you will see what i'm talking about. He is done.

-How long have you been watching the heat? This team is in full cruise control mode, its frustrating watching as a fan, but they have proven they can take it up to the next gear when the playoffs come around.

-The fact that lebron can have a game like he did while playing hurt is a testament to how great he is and his durability.

[FlashKing]

Harlem of 2011 is not haslem of 2013, Joel doesn't even play as much and rebounds even worse. He's lebron height for crying out loud. Why do you struggle to see these things? @pimpwerx

You telling me that Haslem of the 2011 ECF was better than Haslem now? Haslem of 2011 just came off lisfranc foot surgery, in case you forgot. PEACE.

Haslem made a pretty big impact coming back in game 2. His performance arguably shifted momentum over to us.

[Heat_Fan_87]

Harlem of 2011 is not haslem of 2013, Joel doesn't even play as much and rebounds even worse. He's lebron height for crying out loud. Why do you struggle to see these things? @pimpwerx

You telling me that Haslem of the 2011 ECF was better than Haslem now? Haslem of 2011 just came off lisfranc foot surgery, in case you forgot. PEACE.

Haslem made a pretty big impact coming back in game 2. His performance arguably shifted momentum over to us.

He was playing off pure adrenalin that game and i agree that he helped turn the series, those 2 dunks he made were epic.

Plus he had his rows, should have never have lost them.

[FlashKing]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Narm_i07_9w[/youtube]

[imchillin]

Harlem of 2011 is not haslem of 2013, Joel doesn't even play as much and rebounds even worse. He's lebron height for crying out loud. Why do you struggle to see these things? @pimpwerx

You telling me that Haslem of the 2011 ECF was better than Haslem now? Haslem of 2011 just came off lisfranc foot surgery, in case you forgot. PEACE.

Haslem made a pretty big impact coming back in game 2. His performance arguably shifted momentum over to us.

ok, but what is he doing this year? my concern is with NOW..

[FlashKing]

Haslem made a pretty big impact coming back in game 2. His performance arguably shifted momentum over to us.

ok, but what is he doing this year? my concern is with NOW..

I was responding to pimper's post. This year he hasn't done jack.

[Flopper]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Narm_i07_9w[/youtube]

If you take the glass half-empty view on that clip, you could say that Haslem was dreadfully close to getting stuffed at the rim by a 6'2" PG.

[Mutnt]

I don't know how to multi quote, so i will just go with some bullets

-MIller and UD are core players. When you have wade, bron and bosh on the floor you don't need a whole lot from your role players. MIller provides the spacing the offense needs and UD provides the defense and rebounding the team needs.

-Not sure why you hate miller so much. Unwarranted hate is all.

-Calling k mart a beast on the boards? That makes me seriously question your knowledge. Look up his advanced numbers and you will see what i'm talking about. He is done.

-How long have you been watching the heat? This team is in full cruise control mode, its frustrating watching as a fan, but they have proven they can take it up to the next gear when the playoffs come around.

-The fact that lebron can have a game like he did while playing hurt is a testament to how great he is and his durability.

- You are right. You don't need a whole lot from role players. That's why LeBron puts up 30 pts, Wade 20, Bosh 15 and we still end up losing to some scrub team... I'm not arguing that Miller&Haslem aren't semi-key role players on this team, cause they clearly do play some important minutes, but that both are just terrible players that wouldn't get any minutes on any other contender. Sorry, but you can't deny that.

Why the Miller hate? Because all the dude can do is shoot threes, and he makes 1 per game. Compare those 3 pts he gives the Heat against countless times he gets burned by the opposing bench on defense and you'll notice that he's impact is actually negative.

Why the Haslem hate? He's suppose to defend and rebound the ball, but he gets murdered by the other teams big men. Face it, this isn't young pre-injury Haslem. He's small and has no lift. He gets 5 boards a game yes, but mainly because he pursues the basketball twice as hard as any of his teammates, so his bound to rack up a few. Otherwise, his weak ass rebounding is expose against truly elite rebounders, like the ones Chicago/Minnesota has. Oh, and not to mention his god-awful on offense. The jumper is his only weapon and his bricking those on a career low rate. Not only that, but every time he gets spoon-fed down low, he's either stripped, blocked or plain misses the shot.

I didn't mean 'beast' as being extremely good of a player. Obviously there are a ton of better more beastly bigs in the league. But none of those are playing for the Heat. Therefore, I can allow myself to call K-Mart a beast, if I compare him to the likes of Haslem/Anthony/Battier/Lewis... Also, I use the term beast to describe a player who is playing with a lot of energy, crashing the boards, playing D, dunking a lot... Sort of like Faried for Denver, he's a beast like player. And undeniably, K-Mart still plays like a beast. Not as much as his younger days, but still enough to be welcomed in Miami.

I know the Heat aren't playing with full playoff intensity... that would be stupid, right? But cruise control? I don't know. When I hear cruise control, I envision a team playing down to the opposition for 2, 3 quarters, then exploding to a double digit lead and comfortably bringing the game home in the 4th with it's best players resting on the bench. In Miami's case, it's more like starting the game by playing down to the opposition a quarter or two, until the other team takes a lead by exposing our glaring obvious weaknesses. Then we turn it up a notch in the 3rd but still can't make any progress and then it becomes a dog fight in the 4th quarter where our talent mostly wins us games in the dying seconds. Not exactly a safe, cruise route if I might say so.
Oh and yeah, I didn't know us cruising involved LeBron playing 40+ minutes almost every game, otherwise I would be happier if this team just came out playoff hard in the first two quarters, blowing up scrub teams that often time beat us in the 1st half and then sit the best players in the 4th quarter.