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Decisions, decisions. For example, the options for Friday night (May 10) included the Miami Heat-Chicago Bulls Eastern Conference semifinals Game 3 at the United Center or the Las Vegas Sin-Chicago Bliss Legends Football League (formerly known as the Lingerie Football League) contest at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.
April Rose always is welcome around here.
Playoff basketball vs. the final home game of the season for the Bliss (let the record show that your humble correspondent had not missed a home game for that team since its inception).
Decisions, decisions. Which game to attend?
Well, because of a previous commitment, the answer was simple: neither.
Instead I went to a social function at which The Wife was honored for her work. A good time was had by all. Even if it did mean missing basketball and/or football.
Incredibly, the Bulls and Bliss games went on as scheduled.
The Bulls lost 104-94, as Miami took a 2-1 series lead. The Bliss (1-1) won 34-12 to keep its postseason possibilities alive.
Caught the rebroadcast of the Heat-Bulls game on ESPN. Because of time constraints, not all the action was shown. There did seem sufficient time for all the commercials (if not more) and Jalen Rose explaining several times the aforementioned time constraints and how the telecast would return in its truncated form after a commercial break. The rebroadcast did include Joakim Noah’s technical foul and Nazr Mohammed’s first-half ejection.
For the second straight game, the undermanned Bulls lacked composure. So it looks like Game 4 Monday will determine whether the Heat wins the series in five or six games. Unless something more significant than the return of Kirk Hinrich and/or Luol Deng occurs.
Carlos Boozer had 21 points for the Bulls. Nate Robinson and Jimmy Butler added 17 each. Marco Belinelli had 16, and Joakim Noah added 15 points and 11 rebounds.
James led the Heat with 25 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter when Miami outscored the Bulls 34-24. Chris Bosh had 20 points and 19 rebounds, and Norris Cole scored 18.
Of losing Mohammed who pushed LeBron James (who was called for a technical foul first on the play), Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said, “From my angle, I just saw a guy [James] basically flop. “And I’m going to leave it at that.”
“When a guy pushes me down, instinctively, I’m going to get up and do something,” Mohammed said. “Sometimes, you have to fight your instincts and do what’s right. I’m disappointed I didn’t fight my instincts well enough tonight because I could have probably helped the team a little more.”
“It definitely surprised me that he pushed me like that,” James said. “But I’m here to play basketball. I don’t really get into the extracurricular of things. I mean too much to my team to even get involved in stuff like that.”
Thibodeau was terse in his postgame remarks that inferred criticism of the officiating. Not to be confused with the days when Phil Jackson was coach and would offer officiating assessments with the idea being trying to gain some sort of tactical advantage in a subsequent contest.
“That’s the way our league is now,” Robinson said. “It’s not like back in the day when [Detroit’s] Isiah Thomas and guys damn near had fights back in the day and nobody used to get kicked out. But you’ve got to play through it.”
The Bulls have shown plenty of fight in the series. What they need to have the best-of-seven matchup go more than five games is to show plenty of basketball.
Speaking of difficult decisions, Maxim has come out with its Hot 100 list. April Rose, a favorite around here, once again is on it. She becomes the favorite No. 89 (with apologies to former Bears tight end Mike Ditka). Something says she is vastly underrated in that the imaginary girlfriend of former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o finished at No. 69. Miley Cyrus was ranked No. 1.
You can check out the list by clicking here.
The editorial and video departments worked overtime to come up with something to help placate dejected Bulls fans. This is the best they could do on short notice:
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