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CHICAGO There is a very singular reason the Miami HEAT lost Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Chicago Bulls, 103-82. It wasnt because their offensive lost a personal war of attrition or a magnificent, full-game defensive performance from the Bulls. It wasnt because Miami lost the bench scoring battle, 28-15, or because of Derrick Roses 28 points and six assists or even Luol Deng playing as good of defense as Joel Anthony played in the first two rounds of the postseason.
The HEAT lost because they were dismantled on the boards.
This will be a popular point in the coming days, but a little clarification is required. The rebounding battle is always among the first few lines gleaned from a box score, but that alone doesnt tell a story. Most of the time, a team can win the rebounding battle simply by playing good enough defense to force more misses. And in this loss, the HEAT actually pulled down one more defensive board than the Bulls.
Where the boards are most poignant is on the offensive glass, those incomplete defensive stands, those extra possessions afforded a team after a miss. The Bulls grabbed 19 offensive boards, recycling over 50 percent of their misses. Thats the story.
Joakim Noah grabbed eight offensive boards on his own. Boozer four. Off those 19 bonus possessions, the Bulls scored 31 points on 13-of-21 shooting. Thats 1.63 points per possession. For any sort of possession not labeled dunk, thats an absurd rate. Chicago averaged 1.11 during the regular season.
It always seems like there has to be more, but Erik Spoelstra said, again and again, why things were just that simple, why the boards were behind Miamis unraveling in a 24-15 Chicago third quarter.
The offensive rebounding really affected us, Spoelstra said. We had some great stops, and we were not able to come up with a 50-50 ball to seal it.
Our minds were really affected by those second chance points and giving up that double digit lead, he added.
When they started to overwhelm us on the glass, we started to lose focus, and it affected us.
In that quarter, the Bulls shot 33.3 percent, but earned eight extra possessions, largely with each team playing its complete starting unit. Before five minutes had elapsed, the Bulls put in the misses that were themselves the attempts off misses. With five minutes left in the quarter, Miami was down nine.
Here, the HEAT still had a chance. James Jones stopped the bleeding with a three off a cross-court pass from LeBron James, but the next time down the floor, after a stop, James dribbled the ball out of bounds. Miami went two more possessions without scoring again, and by the end of the quarter it was down nine once again.
The rest was downhill. Chicagos defense got more aggressive as it gained momentum and Miami reverted to the over-dribbling, poorly-spaced offensive team its been at its worst points of the season. The HEAT got dunked on, they got outplayed and no serious run was made in the fourth quarter.
It also wasnt nearly as bad as it looked.
The next 48 hours will be spent trying to solve the interior problems, and that will take a complete team effort, possibly sacrificing transition opportunities in the process. But if, and thats a significant if, the HEAT find a partial solution some of it will take care of itself, as is the nature of the 50-50 ball there are reasons to avoid doom and bloom.
For one, Chris Bosh looked very comfortable cutting through the middle of the lane, scoring 30 points. Miami still shot 47.1 percent despite a 12-of-32 outing from Dwyane Wade and LeBron James and scored 46 points in the paint despite just 11 assists.
What might be most significant, however, is that Chicago still only shot 43.7 percent. Remove their 21 extra shots from the equation, and the Bulls shot 37.8 percent, despite going 10-of-21 from three.
The defense was there, the HEAT just didnt always play it for a full 24 seconds. The HEAT have plenty to fix, but the tools are still there.