April 20, 2007

First round of NBA playoffs: Bulls vs. Heat: The Bulls are put in a difficult position after loosing to the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday.

From the number 2 seed down to the number 5 seed in one long game. The Chicago Bulls would have had a easy shot to the Eastern Conferance Finals, but the New Jersey Nets proved too much for the Bulls. Now the they must kickoff their playoff run against the defending champions Miami Heat. The Bulls have home-court advantage this year becuase of there better overall record. These two teams have faced each other in the playoffs four times, including last year when the Heat beat the Bulls in six games to go on and win the NBA Finals. The Bulls won the regular season matchup with the Heat 3-1 including a 42-point thrashing the Heat recieved in Miami. Last year Shaquille O'neal dominated the Bulls who didn't have a big man capable of stopping O'neal. However, with the adittions of Ben Wallace, four-time Defensive Player of the Year, and P.J. Brown should help keep O'neal from dominating like last year. Dwyane Wade also picked apart the Bulls defence last year. Kirk Hinrich, who has the role of stopping Wade, has stepped up his game at all levels this year and is notible for the NBA All-Defencive Team. Chris Duhon and Adrian Griffen are also lock-down defenders who could keep Wade at bay. Luol Deng has come out big this year for the Bulls averaging 18.8 PPG and 7.1 RPG. Wich is up from last years 14.3 PPG and 6.6 RPG. He is notible for the NBA Most-Improved Player award. The key player to beating the Heat is probably going to be Ben Gordan . Gordan is averaging 21.4 PPG and 3.1 APG. He has also been the leading scorer three out of four times the Bulls have played the Heat, including a 40-point performance. With the return of Andres Nocioni, who had been out earlier with a foot injury, the Bulls are now injury free. Nocioni averages 14.1 PPG and 4.9 RPG. The Bulls are 40-30 all-time against the Heat and are 12-5 against them in the playoffs. My prediction is that the Bulld will win the series 4-2.

posted by TelamarketersBeware to at 11:38 AM - 0 comments