“I told you from the beginning I was going to be more aggressive and attack the hole. We were running and playing in a groove. When we are aggressive, we’re great. We are going to ball.”
As some of you know, I just returned on a trip from Japan. Fewer of you may know that it was a rescheduling of a trip that originally was supposed to happen in March of 2011.
When the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami happened, I immediately became glued to the coverage on live TV and on news sites. What I was gradually discovering was that there was a significant lag between what became approved to be announced here on our end, versus what was being shared on social media outlets such as Twitter. In fact, most Twitter updates later proved to be accurate, and proved to be an excellent source of finding additional information and fact checking other updates.
“Defend, rebound, inside out, share the ball, low turnovers. You have to know who you are.”
After two games, this isn't the Bulls team were used to seeing, and not the kind of defense we're hoping to see them play this season.
Instead, Golden State was able to frequently pressure the Bulls into turnovers, and took advantage of a team going through the motions on defense for plays like this:
I'm not going to lie. On paper, this should have been a very easy game: Andrew Bynum out serving a 4 game suspension. Lamar Odom traded away to the Dallas Mavericks for a 2nd round pick. Kobe trying to play through torn ligaments on his shooting wrist. It should have been an easy game, but it was a very sloppy game.
And the mirage of a 56-49 halftime lead, quickly dissipated after a 16-4 Lakers run, and a horrible 12 point quarter. It quickly turned into the kind of game that the Bulls would lose last season. But then, this happened:
Time has really been flying by. I can't believe it's already Wednesday.
Just a quick recap, if I never got to tell you the itinerary. I flew out of Chicago on Sunday morning, and arrived in Tokyo on Monday afternoon. Then, after a Shinkansen (bullet train) into Shibuya for a quick hello to Hachiko, I headed up to Shinjuku, for a quick bite to eat before jumping on am overnight bus (only 6 hours) to Sendai. Finally, in Sendai, I took a local bus to Ishinomaki City.
After less than a minute, I got scooped up by Naomi, one of the regulars of the It's Not Just Mud volunteer group. Once at the volunteer base of operations (two houses provided for volunteer use), I got to have a quick breakfast (rice, soup) before we headed out to help another group (a church group) dig out mud out of drainage ditches.
Today, we were the manpower for a group called Samaritan's Purse, where we were tasked to help mud out a house. Many houses in Ishinomaki City, have had their first floor heavily damaged by the tsunami. Once the water receded, they were left with a large amount of saltwater mud. Mudding out a house essentially involves removing out most of the debris and saltwater mud and disinfecting the remaining framing, leaving things nice and clean for the carpenters to do their work. A good majority of the work was already done, leaving us to just finished out shovelling and bagging up the saltwater mud from the foundation.
The homeowners happened to be present, and worked alongside us. The husband is a musician, and had his music room completely damaged, leaving minute traces of what had previously been a soundproof room with double barriers. They were kind enough to try to give us frequent breaks. Our morning break had nikuman (meat buns) and our afternoon break had fuwa fuwa bread. Lunch was free, but I'm not quite sure why that was.
Well, just tomorrow and Friday left.
More when I get a chance.
Not only is the NBA coming back starting Christmas Day, but I'll be coming back to Japan for about 14 days (finally going on the trip I had originally scheduled for March earlier this year.)
I won't be doing quite the same things I had originally planned, but it should be a lot of fun.
(to be continued...)
A 44-24 advantage in points in the paint.
Deng and Boozer scoring 20 points each.
Runs of 19-4, 15-5 and 9-0But here's the stats that hurt:22 turnovers
32-38 free throw shooting by Miami (compared to 17-22 for Chicago)
10 shots blocked by Miami
16-32 shooting from 16-23 feet by Miami
“Obviously, you have to commit to Wade and James, but that doesn’t absolve you from covering the others. You have to have the ability to do both. You have to go in with a multiple effort mindset. You have to close hard. Whenever you put two on the ball, you have to protect the paint and then get back out. I didn’t think we did that.”
The opening quarter began with a lot of nervous intensity from both ends. In fact, in both an indication and indictment of LeBron, he was flying all over the court on both ends. Aggressively diving for balls, running full speed to recover and break up passes on transition defense, soaring up high to contest shots.
