For the 23,097 fans at the sold-out United Center Tuesday night, a close win by the Bulls would have sufficed. After all, the Heat are the defending champs and have one of the most prolific scoring duos in the NBA.
Apparently the Bulls didn’t get that memo, as they embarrassed Miami in a 107-89 blowout win.
The Bulls continued their campaign to resurrect the ideas of “team effort” and “solid defense” in the NBA, with solid play all around to combine for 55 percent shooting. Ben Gordon led the effort with 27 points and Luol Deng continued to show Bulls brass how much he should be worth in contract dollars with 26 points.
It seems the brass has noticed.
“We’re very proud of the way [Deng] has been playing,” general manager John Paxson said. “To show him how happy we are, we gave him a $50 gift card to the Olive Garden.
We like to reward our guys for doing well, and I hope it served as a message to the rest of the team as to how we treat our stars here. Endless breadsticks and bottomless pasta bowls? You bet your ass I’d be in the gym early every day to get me some of that.”
More notable than the Bulls stellar play, were the increasingly-average efforts of the Heat’s Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O’Neal who combined for 14 turnovers and six hissy fits.
But don’t pack for Detroit just yet, Bulls fans. In this seven-game series (yes, seven), the Bulls still need to win two more against the Heat. The teams will sashay on down to South Beach for two game at American Airlines Arena on Friday.
Here’s hoping that’s all they need.
Number of the Might: Millions
Of Cubs fans who unwittingly realized the Bulls were in the playoffs after they changed the channel during yet another pathetic loss by the Cubs.
