That was ugly...

Shooting 34% from the field, 16-for-26 from the charity stripe, 3-for-20 from beyond the arc, -4 in rebounds, and Derrick shot 7-for-23. That is Khloe Kardashian ugly right there.

The Bulls looked bad from the jump. They couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, but their aggressive rebounding and defense were keeping them in the game (par for the course). As the 1st quarter went on, their defense got stronger and they even finished the 1st up 26-19. You would think that if their rebounding and defensive energy stayed up, their offense would eventually catch up. Well, it turns out they left their offense back in game 1 and the Heat defense showed up. Not a good combination. The Bulls were throwing up bricks from everywhere and anywhere. They even missed 10 shots from the stripe when no Heat player could bother their shot. Check this link from hoopdata.com to see how bad the Bulls were from each spot. The Bulls got a lot of their offense in game one from second chance points from beyond the arc. Those second chance attempts just weren't going down in game two. One of the 3 shots they hit was a 3/4 heave from Deng and another was from Korver in transistion. The Heat were giving Derrick a hard time getting to the rim and when he got there he couldn't finish (2-for-11 from inside 9 feet). A lot of his points came from his outside jumper which as of late, wasn't really going down for him in the past 2 series. Deng started out the first half well with 9 points but finished the game with 13. Korver's shooting woes are still plaguing him which only highlights his inability to defend. Everyone knew that LBJ and Wade weren't going to be held to 33 points again. They came back scoring 54 in game two. They were very influential in the 3rd quarter as they forced the Bulls into bad shots and turned turnovers into fast break points. Udonis Haslem was able to "out-Taj-Gibson" Taj Gibson. He was grabbing offensive rebounds, getting loose balls, creating 2nd opportunites, getting dunks, and hitting jumpers. Steve Kerr was pretty much nominating him as the best power forward in the NBA. That's a stretch for the poor-man's TajMahal.

Even with all this offensive garbage going on, down 11 points at one point, the score was tied at 73-73 with a little more than 7:00 left in the game. Taj and Asik played great defense and were getting the majority of the minutes in the 2nd half. Just like game one, they were causing problems in the paint, altering shots, grabbing boards, and even playing great after switching out on the perimeter. But the Bulls were only able to muster 2 points for the rest of the game. TWO POINTS IN SEVEN MINUTES. Ugh. Derrick tried to carry the team but his shots weren't falling. No one else on the team could help him out and be the second scoring option. All in all it was bad. Very bad. On the other end, LBJ put the team on his back and went on a one person scoring rampage in the last few minutes to close the game for good. Gotta admit, I was a sad man after this game. As bad as the Bulls were, they could have taken the game in the last few minutes. The Bulls gotta shake this one off and come to play on Sunday.