Whenever you shoot 34% from the field, and 15% from behind the arc in the NBA, (as Chicago did in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals) you’re not very likely to win. And for the Chicago Bulls, it’s even harder to win when you’re taking on a team that’s more athletic and less reliant on jump shooting in the Miami Heat.
Maybe the Bulls have gotten their “bad shooting game” out of the way, and now things will get easier.
Or maybe not, in their 96-85 Game 3 loss, the Bulls shot 41% across the board, and their league leading defense allowed the Heat to go 51% from the field.
Perhaps Erik Spoelstra (who is a very underrated coach) has made proper adjustments in defending them? Lebron James and Dwyane Wade are so quick and athletic they can eliminate spacing in an instant.
“You don’t ever know if you’re all the way open. They could be seven, eight feet away and still contest your shot or block it. It does make it difficult,” said Bulls wing Kyle Korver.
“But that’s okay. It’s fun.”
By Paul M. Banks
Kyle Korver, or “Coral Kyver” as Charles Barkley called him, is in a shooting slump; especially for him.
“It’s very frustrating. We want to make shots. The easy thing to do is press harder and get really mad and frustrated. I thought I had some good looks the other night. The ball was in and out. The ball was off the back of the rim.
Coaches have a saying, “It’s a good miss.” As a shooter you hate that saying if something is a miss,” said Korver.
Chuckles butchered his name again “Kyver Korel” or something, I don’t know, it was bad and we all became dumber for having heard it.
Anyways, Korver’s backcourt mate, Ronnie Brewer is feeling his pain
“That’s what shooters do. They have hot streaks and they have cold streaks. I know Kyle works on his game every day. If you were looking at the shots he was taking, there was a lot of in and outs, shots he usually knocks down. I’m not really worried about him with his confidence and making shots,” Brewer said.
Does it feel like the last game was an eternity ago? It does to me, this series is really way too far spaced out. Korver agrees.
“I don’t like it. Especially after you lose. You want to go out and play the next day. That’s one of the good things I mean back to back stinks in the NBA. If you lose in the first one, you know, you don’t got to talk about missing shots for three days in between games. You get to go out there and play again and make some shots. And it’s a different line of questioning,” Korver said.
The Bulls will need better shooting all around, and they’ll need more balanced scoring to take game three in Miami. The only time Chicago has trailed a series this postseason was last round when Atlanta took game one in Chicago. They quickly turned the tables on the Hawks. Partly because the Bulls have not lost consecutive games in three months. Yes, you read that right, haven’t lost back-to-back since February.
“Basically we felt we come in the next day, we watch film and we look at what we did bad to lose the game. We come back with the mentality we’re not going to win two and never three games in a row,” said Brewer.
“And we don’t want to have a letdown. I think Thibs works hard to make sure we don’t have letdowns. I feel we go out there and play harder not that we don’t go out there and play hard before, but when we lose the night before, we play extremely hard the next time.” he continued
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and Facebook
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