A Beast in the East

A Beast in the East
Haslem's toughness inside allows Miami to even up series.

In an early season game pitting the Heat against the Celtics, I watched as Udonis Haslem buried mid-range jumpers from the baseline, dunked with authority, but most importantly, provided muscle and a toughness in the paint that seemed like the answer to the question: "Who'se going to be the inside presence for the Heat ?" Then Haslemwent down for the rest of the season with an injury, and my immediate thought was: Miami will hard pressed to beat teams with tough interior defense. Miami, as it turned out, did fine without Haslem overall but struggled mightily against Boston and Chicago during the regular season, the two teams arguably that posed the biggest obstacles for the Heatto conquer the East.

So it is no surprise that Haslem was the X-factor in Game 2 of the Easter Conference Finals, and that in 23 minutes he tallied 13 points (on 5-of-10 shooting), five rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. It was his toughness inside that set the tone for the rest of the game. Every time you looked, there was Haslem making a key play.

"That's what we have missed all year," James said. "His energy, effort, scoring and toughness has been missing since November. He definitely got the game ball tonight."

Chicago blew out Miami in the second-half of Game1, a blow out fueled mostly by superior rebounding and second-chance points. Early in Game 2, the patterns didn't seem
to change as the Bulls, within six minutes held a 7-0 advantage in offensive boards and a 9-3 rebounding lead overall

"My initial thought was, 'Here we go again,' " Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We have to make a change. Otherwise the result won't change."

Haslem's presence neutralized the two Chicago bigs (Noah and Boozer - a combined 17 points and 16 boards). With Haslem in the lineup, the Heat outrebounded the Bulls 45-41 for the first time this year. It was coincidentally, the first time Miami beat Chicago this year as well. It was also the first time that the Big Three played any substantial minutes with Haslem since the beginning of the year.

In a grind it out game, Haslem provided the spark the Heat needed. If Haslem continues to play with this energy an effectiveness he won't let the Heat, who this year have been known to have some mental lapses, get complacent. Haslem's back in the lineup, and Chicago's mano-a-mano advantage over the Heat has vanished.