May 19, 2011

Heat Even Series with Bulls: The Miami Heat's 85-75 road win over the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night evens the Eastern Conference Finals at one and gives Miami home court advantage. The Heat held the Bulls to 10 fourth quarter points while scoring 14 themselves. LeBron James had 29 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra calls the series "an absolute street fight."

posted by rcade to basketball at 11:46 AM - 7 comments

While I don't have any personal rooting interest in this matchup, I'm curious to see if my Chicago-Miami theory holds up. (Short version: If Chicago is trying to accomplish something in the sports world and Miami is in their way, Miami will spoil it. Most cities have a nemesis city like this.)

posted by TheQatarian at 12:16 PM on May 19, 2011

What other cities have nemesises? nemeses?

posted by bperk at 02:45 PM on May 19, 2011

The Heat held the Bulls to 10 fourth quarter points while scoring 14 themselves.

Switching between this game and local baseball game last night. Kept trying to figure out what was going on in fourth quarter for long stretches when score did not seem to change for either team.

posted by graymatters at 03:57 PM on May 19, 2011

Qatarian - how do two isolated instances translate into a theory? The correct word is coincidence.

If by chance Chicago wins, and I am not saying they will, as much as I hope so, but will that make Chicago, Miami's nemesis city? Of will it just mean that this year one team is better than another?

posted by Atheist at 03:58 PM on May 19, 2011

If you didn't click the link in my comment, do so. It will be clearer.

The point of the column is that many sports cities have another city that just exists to get on their nerves sports-wise. The column mostly focuses on my hometown (Minneapolis) and its dominance of Detroit and torment by Dallas, but Chicago has been provided some pain by Miami. The 1985 Bears' lone loss was to Miami. The 2003 NLCS Cubs heartbreaker was against the Marlins. The Heat's 2006 title run started with them stomping the Bulls. I picked the Heat in this series based purely on this, despite the fact that the Bulls won all 3 meetings in the regular season.

If the Bulls win, they buck the trend, that's all. It isn't a scientific prognostication method; it's just an observation.

(Of course, the Cubs just swept the Marlins...so what do I know?) :-)

posted by TheQatarian at 01:32 AM on May 20, 2011

I do not like Erik Spoelstra at all. Not even one little bit.

posted by The_Black_Hand at 11:13 AM on May 20, 2011

I do not like the fact that there's no game tonight. Not sure what the hell the NBA was thinking on that one.

posted by Ufez Jones at 01:22 PM on May 20, 2011

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