The Bulls led the NBA in winning and individual hardware. The Heat led the league in luminous star power and tantalizing potential. So it figured it might come to this in the Eastern Conference finals, and it has, with the two clubs converging at this crescendo.
They were greeted by a raucous United Center crowd that saw no true haymakers for a good portion of the first half — and then the masses when the Bulls landed a succession of knockout blows in the second half to run away with a 103-82 Game 1 victory.
Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 28 points and Luol Deng added 21 as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference took a 1-0 series lead with Game 2 set for Wednesday night at the United Center.
A LeBron James fadeaway gave the Heat a one-point edge midway through the third quarter, but the Bulls romped from that point on. A Derrick Rose 3-pointer off a scramble on the offensive end kickstarted a 10-0 run that opened a 67-58 lead with five minutes to go.
The Heat parried a bit, but a Luol Deng 3-pointer with 1:15 left in the quarter bumped the lead back to nine entering the final frame.
From there, the bench took over. A C.J. Watson 3-pointer with eight minutes left opened an 83-66 lead, the Bulls opening the final frame with a decisive 11-3 burst. The Heat didn’t draw any closer than 12 points after that.
Chris Bosh was the biggest of the Big Three, with 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting. But Dwyane Wade scuffled, with 18 points on 17 shots, and LeBron James was nearly a non-factor throughout with 15 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
The Bulls didn’t lead until early in the second quarter with the Bench Mob on the floor but they managed to keep pace with 52.4 percent shooting in the second quarter. Rose had a shaky start with three turnovers in the first five minutes and change, but he did lead the Bulls with 22 points through three quarters.
If there was a question of which team might be a bit jangled early, it was answered with two Bulls turnovers on the first two possessions that led to two Heat dunks. The Bulls shot just 34.8 percent in the first quarter and trailed by three, but snuck ahead for a one-point lead on an Omer Asik three-point play early in the second.
The Heat then hit for a 7-0 run but the Bulls chipped away again and took a lead in the final seconds before a James jumper tied matters with 5.1 seconds left before halftime.
Barack Obama, speech on immigration, El Paso, Texas, May 10
WASHINGTON — Constructive and civil debate — like the one Obama initiated just four weeks ago on deficit reduction? The speech in which he accused the Republicans of abandoning families of autistic and Down syndrome kids? The debate in which Obama’s secretary of health and human services said that the Republican plan would make old folks “die sooner”?
In this same spirit of comity and mutual respect, Obama’s most recent invitation to civil discourse — on immigration — came just 11 minutes after he accused opponents of moving the goal posts on border enforcement. “Maybe they’ll need a moat,” he said sarcastically. “Maybe they want alligators in the moat.”
Nice touch. Looks like the Tucson truce — no demonization, no cross-hairs metaphors — is officially over. After all, the Republicans want to kill off the elderly, throw the disabled in the snow and watch alligators lunch on illegal immigrants.
The El Paso speech is notable not for breaking any new ground on immigration, but for perfectly illustrating Obama’s political style: the professorial, almost therapeutic, invitation to civil discourse, wrapped around the basest of rhetorical devices — charges of malice compounded with accusations of bad faith. “They’ll never be satisfied,” said Obama about border control. “And I understand that. That’s politics.”
How understanding. The other side plays “politics,” Obama acts in the public interest. Their eyes are on poll numbers, political power, the next election; Obama’s rest fixedly on the little children.
This impugning of motives is an Obama constant. “They” play politics with deficit reduction, with government shutdowns, with health care. And now immigration. It is ironic that such a charge should be made in a speech that is nothing but politics. There is zero chance of any immigration legislation passing Congress in the next two years. El Paso was simply an attempt to gin up the Hispanic vote as part of an openly political two-city, three-event campaign swing in preparation for 2012.
