Antoine Walker has taken more three-pointers than any other Miami Heat player, but he is shooting just 23 percent from long distance after an oh-fer in Wednesday night’s 109-103 loss to the Bulls.
Walker took a bit of a shot at the Bulls the other day from Miami, the first of several the Heat delivered in what–dare we say–is becoming an angry rivalry. But figuring it was Walker, he would be off a little.
“They can be scored upon,” Walker said. “They’re not the same defensive team they were a year ago.”
The Bulls certainly weren’t against the Heat, which played without the injured Shaquille O’Neal and lost Dwyane Wade in the first quarter with a wrist injury.
Heat coach Pat Riley said that dirty rat Kirk Hinrich caused Wade’s injury.
“Hinrich grabbed his hand, which he does all the time,” Riley said. “It’s what he does. Anytime Dwyane comes off screens, they always either grab his shirt, grab his hand. It’s a little bit of a tactic, down below where the official can’t see it. He had Dwyane’s hand. [Wade] tried to pull his hand out and something happened.”
These words came after James “the Enforcer” Posey, who took out Hinrich with a cross-body block in last spring’s playoffs, was ejected for taking a driving Luol Deng out of the air and spinning him to the ground like a crashing helicopter, John Starks style.
“He went for the ball,” Riley said, apparently sentimental for the days of Starks, Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason.
It wasn’t a proud night for the Bulls with O’Neal and Wade out and the Heat still shooting 48.9 percent after halftime to erase a 20-point deficit.
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Could Walker know something about defense other than, as one teammate once joked, that he can’t play it?
“Maybe he should join the rest of the talking heads and go on TNT,” Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. “It doesn’t sound like he knows what he’s talking about.”
But those shooting from the lip don’t miss all the time as the Bulls’ field-goal defense, first the last two seasons, ranks 17th this season, right on the league average of 45.7 percent.
“We’re not near as good defensively,” Skiles said. “It’s a team-wide thing.”
It wasn’t going to work here with Tyson Chandler. And though Miami played some hack-a-Ben late with success, Ben Wallace made a late key steal and will be comfortable in pressure playoff situations.
But Wallace’s play also exposes the biggest hole for the Bulls, one that makes it clearer why the Bulls desperately need a player such as Kevin Garnett.
It is easily forgotten, but the Pistons weren’t championship contenders until they acquired Rasheed Wallace, a 6-foot-11-inch, true power forward who could share the back line with the often wandering Wallace.
Wallace, who had 11 rebounds and three blocks Wednesday, doesn’t like the Bulls’ style of fronting the post. It’s a more difficult way to play defense because it requires weak-side help against the lob and relentless effort. But the Bulls do it better than anyone and only Miami, with the lob to O’Neal, has had some success against the tactic.
Fronting makes entry passes difficult, forcing post players to work harder, and takes time off the clock in the offense.
Wallace won defensive immortality guarding from behind and has been reluctant to change.
But his style is also why centers have had more success against the Bulls this season. Wallace had issues with Skiles earlier in the season, but players say Skiles has allowed him more defensive leeway than anyone previously.
Wallace likes to roam, chasing long rebounds and running down loose balls. That often results in big plays like the one he made late Wednesday, but it often leaves a smaller player at the basket. Andres Nocioni is not a true power forward. It’s why a player like Garnett would mean so much. It’s also why P.J. Brown may mean more to the Bulls eventually.
That would be because you figure these two teams are far from done this season.
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