Heat crushing the Bulls at halftime

So much for the supposed marquee match-up opening up the national television audience’s NBA season.

Or at least so far, that is. At halftime of tonight’s Miami-Chicago tilt taking place in South Beach, the Heat are destroying the Bulls, leading by a score of 54-33. Derrick Rose leads his team in minutes played with 18, and has 7 points on 3 of 9 shooting from the field with 4 turnovers and just 1 assist thus far.

Being opening night, both teams have showed their fair share of rust, but the Bulls’ offense has looked downright ugly for the majority of the first half, turning the ball over 13 times and reverting back to their nigh unwatchable, Rose-less offensive “attack” of a year ago. Carlos Boozer, however, has turned back the clock and dominated Miami’s thin front line with 19 first half points on 7 of 11 shooting with 5 rebounds, a steal, and a block.

On Miami’s side, LeBron James has 9 points on 3 of 6 shooting to go along with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh have combined to shoot just 5 of 16 from the field, but the entire squad has only turned the ball over four times. Outside of Rose, none of the intriguing storylines (Greg Oden’s comeback, Michael Beasley’s first game back in Miami) have seen the floor for any period of time.

The Bulls actually jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the opening four minutes, but saw their offense stagnant and their defense not quite defend the way that we’re used to for the majority of the half. Rose has generally looked good, albeit sloppy, but that is to be expected.

We’ll be keeping an eye on how Rose’s stamina holds up in the second half of his first game in over a year and a half. It should be interesting to see him try and assert himself even more in the second half to try and get his team back into the game.