DEERFIELD, Ill. -- How do you prepare to play LeBron James? It's the question that every team faces at some point during the NBA season, and it's one the Bulls face four times a season. The problem is that there is really no correct answer to this question. James may very well be the toughest player to face in the entire league.
"He's one of the toughest for sure," Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said after Wednesday's practice. "Dwyane [Wade], Kobe [Bryant], Shaq causes problems or Dwight Howard. All the star players are going to have their issues. LeBron has so much versatility and power to his game. And if the jumper's going he's very difficult. So turnovers will be key for us, keep them out of the open court [by] being sound defensively."
A day after squeaking out a win over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Bulls know they need to work on several facets of their game, especially energy and pacing. Del Negro's team looked flat throughout most of the night, and the Bulls know they'll have to run the floor if they're going to outlast James, Shaq and the rest of the Cavaliers.
"We got to make him run," Rose said of the game plan against O'Neal. "That's one thing [the Cavs] want us to do is slow the ball down, so [Shaq] and [Zydrunas] Ilgaukus can get down court and clog up the middle. But we just got to run and make sure that they pay for having those two in the game."
Bulls forward Luol Deng believes that his team already learned an important early-season lesson during Tuesday night's win that will help them on Thursday and beyond: If they play hard at all times, everything else will fall into place.
"We weren't thinking too much," Deng said of the energy-first attitude that helped get the Bulls back into the game. "I felt like in the beginning of the game we were thinking too much, turning the ball over. [In the] second half, the energy just took over. Guys made big plays, Brad [Miller] made big plays, [Jannero] Pargo came in made big plays. We just played. At one point, I don't even know how much was left on the clock or what the score was, we were just playing with so much energy and everybody was into it."
If the Bulls bring that attitude with them to Cleveland they'll be in good shape, but if they stand around and watch like they did on Tuesday, James is going to give them plenty of trouble.
Taj Gibson, who is expected to shadow James at times on Thursday, is excited about the challenge of facing one of the game's greats.
"You always like to play against the best players and LeBron is one of the best," Gibson said. "I'm looking forward to seeing how our team responds to [Thursday's] game."
Star Struck: Joakim Noah admitted that it's still hard for him to believe sometimes that he is out on the floor competing against the same players he grew up watching. He is looking forward to facing O'Neal.
"It's exciting playing against the best players in the world," he said. "I grew up my whole life admiring Shaq and tomorrow I have a chance to compete against him. They have a lot of great players on that team, obviously. It's going to be a good game."
Don't expect the Bulls' center to give O'Neal or James an inch, though.
"They're very good. Great players. Specimens. They're our opponents," Noah said. "They're kind of like the enemy, so you can't go out there and admire and watch the game as a fan. You have to go out there and compete as hard as you can."
As for what it's like guarding Shaq, Noah said, "He's huge, man. He's huge. Just imagine pushing a wall as hard as you can. That's what it feels like when Shaq is posting you up. It's definitely going to be exciting to play against probably the most dominant center of all time. I'm happy to be in this situation and I'm going to do my best."
The last word: "Everybody's got a little case of the flu," Del Negro joked, when asked how his team could have played so badly during most of Tuesday night's win over the Bucks.
