The Eastern Conference Finals will pit the team with the best record in the NBA this season against the team that most experts predicted to win it all this year. It promises to be an exciting series with plenty of star power. Here is a look at Heat/Bulls.
1 Chicago Bulls vs. 2 Miami Heat
Season Series - Chicago leads 3-0
Even though all the games were close, Chicago wound up sweeping the regular season series against the Miami Heat. The biggest reason for Chicago's success was their rebounding, where they had a big edge on Miami, and consequentially, in second chance points as well. Miami also struggled in closing those games, something that has been their achilles heel all season, though they seemed to have overcome those issues in the Boston series. Despite Chicago's success against Miami this year and the fact that they have home court advantage, the oddsmakers have installed Miami as a favorite in this series, something that Chicago will surely use as extra motivation.
Miami boasts the best one-two punch in the league in Lebron James and Dwyane Wade. They played extremely well in the Boston series. Unfortunately, Chris Bosh has been very inconsistent this year and unreliable from game to game. Their supporting cast is weak, so James and Wade must carry the load scoring-wise. Chicago, though, will throw some pretty good defenders at them in Luol Deng and Keith Bogans, who are sure to make James and Wade work for everything they get.
For Chicago, Derrick Rose is the one who makes everything go. He was the best player in the league this year and deserving of the MVP award. He is quick, he can finish at the basket, he can get to the line, and he draws a ton of attention, creating easy baskets for his teammates. At times in the post-season though, he has fallen in love with the three-point shot which is not his strength and that has hurt his field goal percentage. He must be aggressive in this series and be in attack mode, only taking threes when they are wide open. He must be more of an efficient scorer against Miami.
The key match-up in this series is likely to be the one at power forward. For Chicago, Carlos Boozer had been struggling in the playoffs and even heard boos in Chicago. However, he seemed to come alive and get healthier late in the Atlanta series, a great sign for the Bulls. For Miami, Bosh is a talented player who can score but his rebounding has been down this year and he is more of a finesse player which is something Boozer should take advantage of.
The Heat seemed a little too satisfied with beating Boston and may come into this series a little overconfident. The Bulls have the home court, the best player on the floor, the better defensive team (slightly), and more depth up front. All that equals...
Prediction: Bulls in seven
Frank Leal - I have a B.A. from Rutgers University. I always enjoyed writing papers and articles, especially about sports. I took a sports writing ...
Join the Conversation