Heat Bulls Summary

Best Player in the Series: Chris Bosh. He's been listening to everyone's garbage all season. The world knew how good Lebron and Wade were, but Bosh had toiled in relative anonymity despite regular season success and some nice play for Team USA. Watching Toronto the last 3 years, and Miami this year, no one had to adjust their game more than Bosh on the Heat. He's really the 2011 remix of 2008 Pau Gasol: overburdened #1 guy turns into a great sidekick (other good bets to get the same result: Andre Iguodala, Danny Granger). Incidentally, he lapped the field and then some in this series. How good was he? His 1.10 points per shot in this series was better than Dirk's 1.08 PPS in the OKC series. That is not a misprint. I'm not trying to imply that the two feats are the same, because they're not, and Dirk was far more impressive scoring the ball. I'm simply saying that Dallas should remember to account for this guy... after they figure out how to slow down the two-time MVP. And the All-NBA 2nd Team, Finals MVP from '06. Man, I do not want to trade lives with Rick Carlisle for the next three weeks.

Worst Player in the Series: Joel Anthony. Just so you know, before Game 5, this was Dwyane Wade's spot. That's how bad Wade was in this series, despite the 4 point play and the comeback and all that. But, luckily for Wade, Joel had one more 29 minute stink bomb to throw onto the court. I actually like Joel Anthony; he's in the league because he does the dirty work things that most players claim they do, but rarely do consistently. But the fact that Coach Spo will trot out Anthony, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Jamal Magloire, or Juwan Howard as the starting center in the NBA Finals next week really speaks to how good the Big 3 are. Or, if that isn't convincing enough: Mike Bibby started at PG for the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. 3 months and a day earlier, he was playing against the Heat in his first game for the Wizards, the 23 win team that would pay him to go away less than one week later.

Jerome James Award: Derrick Rose. Derrick Rose is my favorite player in the NBA. Humble, hard-working, and never shies away from accountability. There's no doubt that he could have used some more help from his teammates against Miami, but there are other things to take from this series. For example, here's a look at Chicago's top 5 regular season scorers:

The thing that jumps out... Noah and Korver lost a lot of shots, and lost a lot of efficiency. People can say whatever they want about the Bulls' individual struggles, but the bottom line is this. The point guard's job is to get everybody in the right spot, at the right time, so they can do their job well. Both Noah and Korver aren't going to get their own shot in iso situations, and it's Derrick's job to get them their points. In the regular season, both these guys had struggled offensively against the Heat, and they were going to need Derrick's help to get theirs. And they just didn't get enough help. Regardless of who this team brings in at SG next season, Miami will be waiting in the playoffs. And as evenly matched as these teams were (11 point difference in 5 games, plus an overtime), those future matchups will likely tilt on guys like Haslem getting theirs, and guys like Korver not. And that responsibility will fall to the league's youngest MVP.