Tom Thibodeau – The man who beat the Miami Heat in game-1 of the Eastern Conference Finals
The Miami Heat must be worried team right now. Their game-1 loss against the Chicago Bulls wasn’t part of the script they had laid down; at the very least they wouldn’t have expected to lose by such a margin. After all, going into
the Conference Finals after beating the mighty Boston Celtics, the confidence in the Heat camp was sky high. Miami were on top of the world.
They thought they could take the Bulls by the horn. What have they got anyways - the league MVP Derrick Rose? Huh, the Heat had the Big Three, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Bulls might have the most valuable player
in the league, but the star power of the Heat was more impressive. Miami believed they wouldn’t lose to Rose, they believed that they would beat the Bulls, easily.
Well, they were half right. Miami didn’t lose to Rose, but they did get thrashed by the Chicago Bulls. What Miami failed to consider, amongst all the hype surrounding their own win over Boston and the showdown with the MVP, was
that there was another, possibly more dangerous, weapon at Chicago’s disposal. Coach of the Year, Tom Thibodeau. Make no mistake about it; he beat the Heat on the night.
Ironic isn’t it that a few days after finally beating the Boston Celtics, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were hunted down by the former Celtics man. Thibodeau came over from Boston this pre season to take over the reins at Chicago.
He brought with him the defensive philosophy that had made the Celtics such a formidable unit over the years, and the Bulls players bought into it straightaway. What followed was a 62 win season and home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
"We knew when we hired him that he was someone who emphasized defense," said Gar Forman, the Bulls' president of basketball operations. "But we also discovered just how well-rounded a coach he is. Tom was the right guy for the
personnel we had in place."
The Heat seemed to have neglected all this, and they were made to pay dearly. Tom had overseen a sweep of Miami in the regular season and he knew exactly how to shut them down. Instead of the anticipated gang up on Derrick Rose,
the United Center saw LeBron James and Dwyane Wade being hassled and harried throughout game-1, so much so that they combined for just 11 points in the whole of the second half.
Carlos Boozer summed up the Bulls strategy perfectly, "We've just got to make sure LeBron and Wade see bodies around them," said Boozer. "Get them to take tough shots. They'll make some of them, but the more uncomfortable they
are, the better off we are."
That is exactly what the Bulls did. They did the exact same thing to Joe Johnson in the latter half of the series against the Atlanta Hawks when Johnson, and subsequently the Hawks, broke down to give Chicago the win.
Chicago didn’t give the two Miami stars any space in the game. Luol Deng reduced LeBron James to a 5 field goal and 4 turnover performance. Dwyane Wade never got a moment to breathe. He was closed down, the lane was packed and
he was forced to either shot tough shots with multiple hands in his face or pass the ball on. LeBron and Wade tried passing it, but there support cast wasn’t used to taking the big shots. Bosh made the most of what he got, but Chicago didn’t mind it, not at
all.
There was simply no offensive outlet for Miami, other than Bosh, and they were held to 82. Meanwhile the Bulls, and this is important, not Derrick Rose, hit the second best defence in the league for over a hundred.
It was all Thibodeau’s doing, and if Miami coach Erik Spoelstra doesn’t find a way to best the best coach in the league, the Heat are in for a world of trouble.
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