HoopSmack Playoff Preview: Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls

Posted by Chris Willis on May 15, 2011 in NBA | 3 comments

Now that the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks are officially eliminated from the playoffs, the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls will square off in a seven-game series to determine who will represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals.

3 points, 4 points, 1 point. That’s the margin of victory for the 3 games that the Heat and the Bulls played during the regular season.  All three games could have gone to the other side with the Heat winning all of them.  This EC Finals matchup could go down as one of the greatest series given the potential of these two teams.  Its funny that I could see one team winning 4 close games in a sweep or we could get some overtime epics with the pendulum swinging toward both teams in a 7-game affair.  The Heat could also lose focus after that emotional win over the Celtics and the Bulls could be tired after playing good basketball for the past 7 months.  Both of these teams are unknowns and that is the greatest factor in the intrigue of this matchup.  We don’t know how these teams will really perform when the heat (no pun intended) is on.

Chicago definitely had the easier road with an opening round against Indiana and the semi matchup against the Atlanta Hawks.  It can’t be too comforting to the Bulls faithful that they struggled mightily against both opponents to make it this far. The Heat didn’t have a “tough” road either receiving little resistance from the Sixers and beating on an old, injury plagued Celtics team (no Rondo was a biggie).  The Heat definitely have the momentum going into this series but one slip up from their Big 3 they are pretty much done for.  Both teams have their strengths and weaknesses but I believe that Miami’s “strength in superstar numbers” will win out at the end of the day for the following reasons:

Bulls bench edge will not be as significant

Starters generally play more minutes come playoff time.  With the Heat’s ability to play their Big 3 more, they will rely less on that ineffective bench that has been the scapegoat for many of their problems.  With less reliance on the bench, Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh can put their stamp on their series in a way they couldn’t in the regular season.

The regular season series is a false representation

Out of the 144 minutes played between these two teams, Lebron missed 61 of them.  Can you imagine if it were reversed and Derrick Rose missed 61 minutes? Talk about landslide victory for the Heat.  Plus these games should be showcased to educate the public on the philosophy of ‘addition by subtraction’.  If you look at the games played you should see a disgusting trend…Erick Dampier was starting for the Heat…Erick Dampier.  Has Dampier even played in the past 2 months? Addition by subtraction…

Lets not forget that fact that Bosh missed the fourth quarter of the first game with a sprained ankle (he was eating the Bulls front court alive in that game by the way).  He then followed that up with the most horrendous game ever recording (going 1-for-18) which i highly doubt will be repeated again.

The Heat have seen the Bulls defense before

Well, this is a gift and a curse really. The Heat have had 5 games to practice against an older more experienced version of Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau’s defense and its called the Celtics.  The Bulls and C’s had the two best defenses in the league this year and the Heat just ran through one version of said defense.  Now its probably a mistake to think the Heat will find the same success against the Bulls just because they were able to punish the C’s but considering the blueprint is very similar to the Bulls defense, I can’t help but think that Wade and Lebron have found a way to be successful against it.

I have been going back and forth about this considering I love Chicago’s depth and their defense but it concerns me that 1) Kyle Korver and Carlos Boozer are mostly MIA this postseason and 2) Rose has struggled with his shot for most of the postseason.  Even with that said, the Bulls have the depth and defense to stall the two headed monster that is Lebron and Wade with Bosh mainly taking himself out of the picture (see Boston series).

This should be a close matchup but I think the Heat will win in 6. I’m sorry Bulls Nation, I’m just not ready for the constant media spin of Rose beating the Super Team.  Good triumphs over evil and blah blah blah…just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach…disgusting.