The Heat Have To Clean Up The Glass In Game 2

On January 15th the Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat 99 to 96. In that game, the Bulls outrebounded the Heat 42 to 30 on the glass. 

On February 24th the Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat again 93 to 89. In that game, the Bulls outrebounded the Heat 53 to 39 on the glass. 

On March 6th the Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat for a third time in three games 87 to 86. For a third straight game, the Bulls outrebounded the Heat 36 to 30 on the glass. 

In game one of the Bulls-Heat Eastern Conference Finals matchup, this pattern continued. The Bulls beat the Heat by 21 points 103 to 82. They outrebounded the Heat 45 to 33 on the glass. They also had 19 offensive rebounds including 8 from Joakim Noah, while the Heat had just 6 offensive rebounds. All of the Bulls offensive rebounds gave them 19 more shot attempts than the Heat. 

Lebron James admitted that the Heat will have to figure out how to keep the Bulls off the boards. He said after game 1, "You play defense. You play defense hard and the shot goes up and they get an offensive rebound, kick it out for a three, or get a layup, or a dunk. Those are demoralizing for a defensive team. We've got to figure out a way to clean that up. This was the fourth straight time we've gotten outrebounded by the Bulls. That's where they're dominant. We did a great job of holding them on forced attempts. They shot just [43.7 percent] form the floor." Dwayne Wade said, "We know we have to do a better job of cleaning the glass. We’ve got to get more second-chance efforts and rebounds. There’s not just going to be one guy getting 13 or 14 rebounds [the way Bulls center Joakim Noah did]. We all have to chip in and box out.’’ Heat coach Erik Spoelstra added about all the Bulls second chance points, "It simply overwhelmed us tonight. It was something we simply couldn't overcome. We have 48 hours to get back to our identity. We’re a good rebounding team. We've proven that all season long. We've got to revert back to our habits."

When many teams play the Heat, they don't attack the glass to try and get offensive rebounds because they are fearful of run outs, which the Heat do exceptionally well. All of the offensive rebounds by the Bulls prevented the Heat from running out on the fast break. They had just 10 fast break points during the game.

It will be a long series for the Heat if they don't clean up the glass.