Good vs. Evil: Round One is Done

I'm not going to pretend I watched today's 97-93 loss to the Miami Heat. I was taking in Super Bowl activities with my dad down in Indianapolis. However, I did hear how Derrick Rose missed two free throws and a floater towards the end that helped give Miami the victory. That gives me enough material to work with here.

Another thing I heard, and it shouldn't be too surprising if you're a Bulls fan or even just a D-Rose fan, is that Rose was very hard on himself in the postgame interviews. He knows he let the team down. All it will do is make him stronger as a competitor. That's who he is and he intends to learn from this. Even Joakim Noah said so when reporters talked to him after the game.

While losing to Miami in the teams' first match-up of the season is tough to swallow and a bit discouraging, there's no cause for alarm. With the defeat, the Bulls have now dropped five in a row to the Heat, but only the first loss, Game 2 of the conference finals, was a contest dominated by the victors. Every other game between the two since then has been very close and come down to the wire. The Bulls can compete with this team. It's just a matter of finishing them off.

Let's face it. This Bulls team is only in its second season of being a premier NBA club. To be fair though, so is Miami. Here's what separates the teams right now: experience. Wade has a championship ring. LeBron, despite his poor performance in last year's Finals, has come through in the clutch several times before, going back to when Rose was still in high school ('07 Detroit series anyone?). Bosh is...well, I really don't have much to go on for his pre-Miami days. The point is the key players on the Heat know how to step up in the most pressure-filled situations because they've been around the league longer than most key Bulls players.

The good news for the Bulls is that the current core has a pretty large window to win a championship or two. Rose looks primed to perform at his current level for the next decade. If his supporting cast of Noah, Deng, Boozer, Hamilton and others can't help him get a title, the Bulls will find players who will. Presently, losses like the one today will only make the Bulls wiser when it comes to games like this. It may not pay off this year or next year as the Heat look pretty strong, but their day will come and it will be great. Remember, the Jordan Bulls had to sustain three straight playoff defeats to the Bad Boy Pistons before finally getting over the hump. So it's not do-or-die for them in 2012.

Let's pray for a better outcome tomorrow against the Washington Wizards. It'll be pretty easy I think.