Chicago Bulls flex their muscle in Game 1

CHICAGO — By now, you probably have prepared yourself for the strong possibility that this playoff series will not always be an artistic triumph, despite Eric Spoelstra’s prediction (or was it his delusion?) that “at some point a basketball game will break out.”

Four quarters in, and we’re still waiting for that to happen for his Miami team. No doubt, there were long and competitive stretches Sunday night in which the Heat looked comfortable with the grunt game that the Chicago Bulls play so well. But that was a mirage.

Whether they are equipped to play this kind of game remains to be seen, but they had better learn quickly that this series will be decided by the coach who can get his team to lock in longer defensively. In this particular instance, that team was Chicago, and for 48 minutes it was a masterpiece of the art.

That was the lesson from Game 1, a 103-82 Chicago blowout, and it was a sight to behold. The Bulls were more precise, more intense, more dedicated to making certain that every last stop was brought to its conclusion, with their four main bigs snatching more rebounds than the entire Miami team.

It didn’t hurt, either, that Derrick Rose played like the MVP and that honorary Jersey guy Luol Deng — a Blair Academy product — outplayed LeBron James by a substantial margin.

Or that every last guy off Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau’s bench was a game-changer.
Or that there was a 45-33 blowout on the glass, and a 31-8 landslide in second-chance points.

Etc., etc.

Some coaches would call it beautiful, and that’s their right. But when you lose, you think otherwise, and even Chris Bosh had to admit, “We took a beating tonight.”

So while it doesn’t change our opinion that the Heaters are the better group here, let’s just say that the Bulls now have their full attention.

This is worth noting because after it was over, one of the first things out of Thibodeau’s mouth was, “There are things we have to clean up defensively.” Nothing is left to chance with this guy, and every mistake elicits coaching castigation.

Think of it this way: Chicago scored its first three times out of the gate in the second half, and even though Bosh had just blown by Joakim Noah for a lefty score, the Bulls had their largest lead (55-50) of the game.

But Dwyane Wade then found a seam for a score, and James set up a Bosh jam off a side screen/roll that was too quick for the help (Boozer) to stop this from happening.

They hadn’t even played three minutes in the second half, but what did Thibodeau do? He called timeout, probably to reinforce the no-layup rule, as the Bulls had now yielded three straight layups.

“We were spread out,” he explained later. “As ball goes away, we have to handle the weak side better. And our ball pressure wasn’t where we wanted it to be.”

What happened from there was extraordinary. The Heat took their final lead at 58-57 on James’ 20-foot turnaround fadeaway with Deng in his mug, but that’s where Thibodeau’s defense shut Miami’s water off.

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Kevin Durant and LeBron James Career Parallels at Age 22 and Season Four

It was almost too easy to forget while watching him drop 39 points and lead his Oklahoma City Thunder to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since the franchise moved from Seattle:

Kevin Durant is only 22-years old. And this is only his fourth season in the league.

Durant already has two scoring titles and All-NBA first team selections to his name just a year removed from being able to legally buy a beer for himself. But when thinking about who else made such a splash at the same age and same season in the league, one has to shift his eyes away from the Oklahoma City superstar to South Beach.

The comparisons are with one LeBron James, and the stage is in Cleveland back in 2007.

When James was 22 and in Year Four, he took the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first and only trip to the NBA Finals. That run included one of LeBron's signature moments in the Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit, where "The King" scored the Cavs' final 25 points, 29 of their last 30, all 18 in the two overtime sessions combined and 48 overall to help Cleveland break Detroit's back and take a 3-2 series lead.

Many NBA fans will stop the comparisons right there. To compare the two is asinine, they will say. Sure, Durant has had signature moments in these playoffs, such as scoring Oklahoma City's last nine points in the closeout game against Denver and 41 overall. Or his Game 7 performance against Memphis where he made superstar plays on both ends of the floor en route to 39 points and nine rebounds on 13-of-25 shooting.

But neither moment stacks up to that moment. The moment in Game 5 at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit on that May evening in 2007. And Durant is still a ways away from taking his Thunder to the Finals like LeBron did, especially with a white-hot Dallas team serving as the barrier between Oklahoma City and the NBA's biggest stage.

However, comparing the climate of the league back then to the one it is in now is like comparing apples and oranges. The 2007 Cavs could arguably be the worst team in NBA history to make the Finals, as you would be hard-pressed to name a single Cavalier on that particular squad outside of LeBron. But those Cavs also had what has to be—by far—the easiest road to the NBA Finals.

Cleveland took out two .500 teams in Washington and New Jersey in the first two rounds, respectively. Neither the Wizards or Nets would have even come close to qualifying for the playoffs in the Western Conference, either this year or in several subsequent years. The 53-win Detroit team that LeBron helped take out in the Eastern Conference Finals had a worse record than Durant's 55-win Thunder this year and would have been a first round matchup for OKC had they been in the West.

That has to negate some of the argument that Durant has a better team around him right now. No Cavalier other than LeBron had a triple-double during his career in Cleveland, let alone in the playoffs like Russell Westbrook did in Game 7 against Memphis. But the Thunder are playing far superior competition, and Durant is still the headliner on one of the league's young and exciting team. Even the eighth-seeded Grizzlies were a better team than any team the Cavs beat in '07 because of the way they played in these playoffs.

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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/701483-kevin-durant-and-lebron-james-career-parallels-at-age-22-and-season-four

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