Live-blogging of Bulls-Heat 1st half

Ben Gordon's mouth has a certain devilish quality to it, enjoy these new ABC intro's where the players introduce their fellow starters rather than the customary graphic/Bill Walton says Antoine Walker is one of the worst shooters in the United States. He has a .416 career FG% http://basketball-reference.com/players/w/walkean02.html / Not terrible though I wouldn't count on Walk to hit the big shot. Walk's FT% improved to 63% in 05-06 after slipping to 54% last season. Michael Sweetney was open from 15 and hit the top of the backboard. That is hard to do when trying. Sweetney is obviously very nervous going against the Diesel. Tyson came in, got his customary foul and travel early, then settled in and drew 2 offensive fouls on Shaq and has stayed on the floor for much of the half. Hinrich is the Bulls MVP. He is the unquestioned floor leader. He is awesome and the reason the Bulls are making this series close. He is the driver of the bus, Gordon and Nocioni are giving a big push. Ben Gordon has to be one of the worst defenders in the league. Jason Williams attacks him at every opportunity. Gordon is providing ball pressure which is important to Skiles and seems to get Gordon himself energized during the game. Ben is an amazing shooter. And so confident - I've never seen him pass up a good shot. Conversely, Williams is also a terrible defender and may be worse than Gordon. He couldn't stop a corpse. While Hinrich guards Wade, Miami puts Wade on Gordon as Williams has no chance of stopping BG. Hinrich feels very comfortable with the ball when Williams is guarding him. Hinrich loves the high screen roll going to his left and Malik Allen has developed a reliable jumper from the wings. Andres Nocioni is amazing. He is my guy. Elongated post to follow on this. Nocioni's shooting, defense, energy, has been awesome. So fun to watch, in agreement with my guy Big Bill. Duhon drives me nuts. He belongs on a bench - a Church League bench. He hits a 3 then decides to drive on Mourning. Result? An embarassing miss that grazes the rim. Wade has only scored a couple baskets since Hinrich left so I can't completely dismiss his lack of skills. I can't wait until Duhon experiences a minor, nagging injury that prevents him from playing major minutes. Wait, he does have that injury, a bad back. So why is Skiles playing him? I want Pargo. Bulls up 6 with 1 minute to go in the half, halved from 12 point lead minutes ago. Imagine Doug Collins lecture about closing quarters here, man do I miss that. Bulls closed this half horribly. Dwayne Wade has no jump shot. Absolutely none. He knows not to shoot from 20+. Helluva player inside 20 feet. Bill Walton says "Chris Duhon, that's a winner right there." I've never agreed with those who question the Big Man's sanity. I may agree now. The only question when you see Pargo is how fast the shot is going up. I'd set the o/u for any game at 1 minute, difficulty is whether he'll jack it on the 1st possession or the 2nd.    - farfel