Chicago Bulls Playoff Thread

[Flames24Rulz]

Tribune has something up echoing the discussion here about thibs playing guys when they are coming off injuries or have nagging but not quite injuries.

 

Aparently wailing about starting Keith Bogans has morphed into this. In this city, people will never be happy with anything. If the medical staff says a guy is good to go, then he is good to go and thibs should use him. We are a young team trying to win a championship, we will NEVER beat the Heat in a 7 gamer without HCA. They have to win every game. Without Rose any team in the NBA can beat us on their home floor. Remember when Memphis waxed us on MLK day?

 

I dont think ive ever seen a team cautiously rest a young superstar when he was cleared to play. One other thing, based on the fact he choked out VDN in front of all of Chicagos media people, we know Paxson is sensitive about overusing injured players, and he does not seem to be putting a stop to this; thus im satisfied.

 

I don't agree with this.

 

I don't think we can beat the Heat in a seven game series (as currently constructed), HCA or not.

 

What does this mean? You think the Bulls win 0/10 times?

 

Why would anyone think we CAN'T beat them? I can understand thinking we would be more likely to lose than not, but I don't understand when people say things like this, especially when the team it is being said about is as good as this one.

 

That's not what I was saying. Obviously the Bulls can win individual games against the Heat. I just don't believe they can beat the Heat in a best of seven series.

 

It's simple math. They have three great players while the Bulls only have one. I thought last year that the Bulls could beat the Heat in a seven game series and I was wrong. I thought that the Bulls bench would have been a factor, but Miami's bench outplayed the Bulls bench from Games 2 through 5 in that series. Not to mention that I thought Noah would have actually been able to take advantage of Miami's weak frontline, and he was completely useless. Until proven otherwise, I'll pick the Heat.

 

I'd love to be wrong, but I don't see how LeBron is stopped at the end of games. Until Rose starts attacking LBJ in late game situations, I don't have much confidence in him getting big baskets at the end of games. LeBron is seemingly the only guy in the league who can stop Rose and that's a gigantic problem for the Bulls if they want to get past the Heat.

[Derwood]

The Bulls are 4-5 vs. Miami since LeBron joined the Heat. Why wouldn't they be able to win 4 games against them in the playoffs?

[Banedon]

Tribune has something up echoing the discussion here about thibs playing guys when they are coming off injuries or have nagging but not quite injuries.

 

Aparently wailing about starting Keith Bogans has morphed into this. In this city, people will never be happy with anything. If the medical staff says a guy is good to go, then he is good to go and thibs should use him. We are a young team trying to win a championship, we will NEVER beat the Heat in a 7 gamer without HCA. They have to win every game. Without Rose any team in the NBA can beat us on their home floor. Remember when Memphis waxed us on MLK day?

 

I dont think ive ever seen a team cautiously rest a young superstar when he was cleared to play. One other thing, based on the fact he choked out VDN in front of all of Chicagos media people, we know Paxson is sensitive about overusing injured players, and he does not seem to be putting a stop to this; thus im satisfied.

 

I don't agree with this.

 

I don't think we can beat the Heat in a seven game series (as currently constructed), HCA or not.

 

What does this mean? You think the Bulls win 0/10 times?

 

Why would anyone think we CAN'T beat them? I can understand thinking we would be more likely to lose than not, but I don't understand when people say things like this, especially when the team it is being said about is as good as this one.

 

That's not what I was saying. Obviously the Bulls can win individual games against the Heat. I just don't believe they can beat the Heat in a best of seven series.

 

It's simple math. They have three great players while the Bulls only have one. I thought last year that the Bulls could beat the Heat in a seven game series and I was wrong. I thought that the Bulls bench would have been a factor, but Miami's bench outplayed the Bulls bench from Games 2 through 5 in that series. Not to mention that I thought Noah would have actually been able to take advantage of Miami's weak frontline, and he was completely useless. Until proven otherwise, I'll pick the Heat.

 

I'd love to be wrong, but I don't see how LeBron is stopped at the end of games. Until Rose starts attacking LBJ in late game situations, I don't have much confidence in him getting big baskets at the end of games. LeBron is seemingly the only guy in the league who can stop Rose and that's a gigantic problem for the Bulls if they want to get past the Heat.

 

Each of those games was close, and Rose was playing on a bad ankle. The Heat may still win, but I don't think it's as hopeless as you believe.

[bcl412]

I trust the Bulls to do more on offense against the Heat too. We have better ball movement this year than last year in my opinion. This year against the Heat we were getting open shots in spots where we would normally hit and just missed them. Those shots would fall more likely than not in a 7 game series.

 

I just think the Bulls are better this year than last year (so are the Heat but still.)

[Flames24Rulz]

The Bulls are 4-5 vs. Miami since LeBron joined the Heat. Why wouldn't they be able to win 4 games against them in the playoffs?

 

Don't forget that LeBron missed one of the games last year and the Bulls had to have a late rally to win the game that he missed. I thought the regular season matchups meant something last year and I was wrong. In fact, I picked the Bulls to beat Miami in 6 last year in the ECF.

 

The Bulls offense was really bogged down in the ECF when Rose wasn't pushing the ball in transition. I would imagine Rose could shoot better than 35% from the field against them in a playoff series this year, but I'd also imagine that Wade won't be as bad as he was last year.

 

Three great players usually beat one great player. The hope is that some of the Bulls perimeter shooters catch fire like Dallas did so you can sort of neutralize that. I don't really have great confidence in that, but I thought the same thing about Dallas last year too and I was wrong then. Nothing would please me more than to be wrong about this.

[Guest]

Tribune has something up echoing the discussion here about thibs playing guys when they are coming off injuries or have nagging but not quite injuries.

 

Aparently wailing about starting Keith Bogans has morphed into this. In this city, people will never be happy with anything. If the medical staff says a guy is good to go, then he is good to go and thibs should use him. We are a young team trying to win a championship, we will NEVER beat the Heat in a 7 gamer without HCA. They have to win every game. Without Rose any team in the NBA can beat us on their home floor. Remember when Memphis waxed us on MLK day?

 

I dont think ive ever seen a team cautiously rest a young superstar when he was cleared to play. One other thing, based on the fact he choked out VDN in front of all of Chicagos media people, we know Paxson is sensitive about overusing injured players, and he does not seem to be putting a stop to this; thus im satisfied.

 

I don't agree with this.

 

I don't think we can beat the Heat in a seven game series (as currently constructed), HCA or not.

 

What does this mean? You think the Bulls win 0/10 times?

 

Why would anyone think we CAN'T beat them? I can understand thinking we would be more likely to lose than not, but I don't understand when people say things like this, especially when the team it is being said about is as good as this one.

 

That's not what I was saying. Obviously the Bulls can win individual games against the Heat. I just don't believe they can beat the Heat in a best of seven series.

 

It's simple math. They have three great players while the Bulls only have one. I thought last year that the Bulls could beat the Heat in a seven game series and I was wrong. I thought that the Bulls bench would have been a factor, but Miami's bench outplayed the Bulls bench from Games 2 through 5 in that series. Not to mention that I thought Noah would have actually been able to take advantage of Miami's weak frontline, and he was completely useless. Until proven otherwise, I'll pick the Heat.

 

I'd love to be wrong, but I don't see how LeBron is stopped at the end of games. Until Rose starts attacking LBJ in late game situations, I don't have much confidence in him getting big baskets at the end of games. LeBron is seemingly the only guy in the league who can stop Rose and that's a gigantic problem for the Bulls if they want to get past the Heat.

 

I meant 0/10 playoff series. Or 0/100. Or whatever other number you might arbitrarily make it. I don't understand when people act as though the less likely outcome is impossible for some reason. You see it a lot with sports prognostication. It is just a huge pet peeve of mine and I'm probably being a pain in the ass by nitpicking about it.

 

That said, I agree with those that are saying that it's not nearly as hopeless as you make it out to be.

[Guest]

The Bulls are 4-5 vs. Miami since LeBron joined the Heat. Why wouldn't they be able to win 4 games against them in the playoffs?

 

Don't forget that LeBron missed one of the games last year and the Bulls had to have a late rally to win the game that he missed. I thought the regular season matchups meant something last year and I was wrong. In fact, I picked the Bulls to beat Miami in 6 last year in the ECF.

 

The Bulls offense was really bogged down in the ECF when Rose wasn't pushing the ball in transition. I would imagine Rose could shoot better than 35% from the field against them in a playoff series this year, but I'd also imagine that Wade won't be as bad as he was last year.

 

Three great players usually beat one great player. The hope is that some of the Bulls perimeter shooters catch fire like Dallas did so you can sort of neutralize that. I don't really have great confidence in that, but I thought the same thing about Dallas last year too and I was wrong then. Nothing would please me more than to be wrong about this.

 

You weren't wrong. Those games went very much like the playoffs went. Very competitive, very close, and most of them could've gone either way.

 

The only really definitive win was ours in game one.

[Guest]

And this year we barely lost to them on the road without our second best player.

[SouthSideRyan]

The Bulls are 4-5 vs. Miami since LeBron joined the Heat. Why wouldn't they be able to win 4 games against them in the playoffs?

 

Whatever you think about the Bulls chances vs. the Heat, their overall record means pretty much nothing. I feel like even the smartest people here have a blindside when it comes to analyzing other sports because they're so ingrained in baseball. You can't apply the same reasoning you do with baseball that you do to basketball. The Bulls going 3-1 during the regular season vs. the Heat meant nothing last year. NBA teams(with a few exceptions, the Bulls being one of them) simply don't bring it on every night during the regular season. The NBA playoffs are completely different than the regular season.

[Ryne Ween]

The point is we need to get the the HCA, be healthy, and click in that series to have a decent shot to win.

 

And we have Rip this year, and if he has something left thats gonna mean a lot for us. His game against the Heat a couple weeks ago was maybe the worst games ive ever seen an NBA player have, but he is still a guy who boasts one of the official where will amazing happen commercials from when he buried a huge jumper in ray allens face a little husky on husky crime.

 

Hes a guy who can potentially win a game for you offensively and that makes a big difference compared to bogans who played 25 minutes in the OT game last year.

[bcl412]

The Bulls are 4-5 vs. Miami since LeBron joined the Heat. Why wouldn't they be able to win 4 games against them in the playoffs?

 

Whatever you think about the Bulls chances vs. the Heat, their overall record means pretty much nothing. I feel like even the smartest people here have a blindside when it comes to analyzing other sports because they're so ingrained in baseball. You can't apply the same reasoning you do with baseball that you do to basketball. The Bulls going 3-1 during the regular season vs. the Heat meant nothing last year. NBA teams(with a few exceptions, the Bulls being one of them) simply don't bring it on every night during the regular season. The NBA playoffs are completely different than the regular season.

 

I'm not sure I buy the validity of this. It seems like a cliche NBA stereotype to me. I mean, sure, lottery teams tank all the time and you can tell most of their game involves one on one play and stat padding, and top teams don't always have a ton of energy against lower tier teams but when top teams play each other they bring it against each other in my opinion.

[Garwilly]

The Bulls are 4-5 vs. Miami since LeBron joined the Heat. Why wouldn't they be able to win 4 games against them in the playoffs?

 

Whatever you think about the Bulls chances vs. the Heat, their overall record means pretty much nothing. I feel like even the smartest people here have a blindside when it comes to analyzing other sports because they're so ingrained in baseball. You can't apply the same reasoning you do with baseball that you do to basketball. The Bulls going 3-1 during the regular season vs. the Heat meant nothing last year. NBA teams(with a few exceptions, the Bulls being one of them) simply don't bring it on every night during the regular season. The NBA playoffs are completely different than the regular season.

 

3-0.

[Ryne Ween]

NBA teams(with a few exceptions, the Bulls being one of them) simply don't bring it on every night during the regular season. The NBA playoffs are completely different than the regular season.

 

I was gonna say this same thing. The Bulls bring it every night and the Heat do not. Conversely, every team brings it when they play the Heat. The Heat are built for the playoffs when team drop to a 7-8 man rotation and play there guys for 45 minutes in tight games. In the playoffs, its very unliekly that the minions of stern will allow LBJ or Wade to into early foul trouble, however their attacking style can tack fouls on help d bigs all game. Then you have Bosh, national media humiliation aside, possibly the most skilled big the game.

[Guest]

That logic is [expletive] silly when being brought up about Bulls/Heat. The Heat bring it and brought it last year against Chicago.

 

They were in [expletive] tears after losing to us in March, FFS.

[Ryne Ween]

I'm not sure I buy the validity of this. It seems like a cliche NBA stereotype to me. I mean, sure, lottery teams tank all the time and you can tell most of their game involves one on one play and stat padding, and top teams don't always have a ton of energy against lower tier teams but when top teams play each other they bring it against each other in my opinion.

 

There is a difference between tanking and playing the regular season differently than the playoffs. For example, Dallas was absuing the Spurs 2 weeks ago and Pop put the second unit in the game at the end of the 3rd. They started the fourth and got San Antonio back into the game. Pop left them in for the entire fourth quarter and OT period. He wasnt tanking the game but he was coaching it differently than in the playoffs. Giving his second unit a chance to play in a big spot, sending a message to Duncan/Parker/RJ; whatever it was he wouldnt do it in a playoff series.

 

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201201290DAL.html

[bcl412]

I'm not sure I buy the validity of this. It seems like a cliche NBA stereotype to me. I mean, sure, lottery teams tank all the time and you can tell most of their game involves one on one play and stat padding, and top teams don't always have a ton of energy against lower tier teams but when top teams play each other they bring it against each other in my opinion.

 

There is a difference between tanking and playing the regular season differently than the playoffs. For example, Dallas was absuing the Spurs 2 weeks ago and Pop put the second unit in the game at the end of the 3rd. They started the fourth and got San Antonio back into the game. Pop left them in for the entire fourth quarter and OT period. He wasnt tanking the game but he was coaching it differently than in the playoffs. Giving his second unit a chance to play in a big spot, sending a message to Duncan/Parker/RJ; whatever it was he wouldnt do it in a playoff series.

 

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201201290DAL.html

 

That I do understand, and starters are going to play more minutes in the playoffs too. I was just contesting the fact that NBA teams don't try hard.

[Ryne Ween]

That logic is [expletive] silly when being brought up about Bulls/Heat. The Heat bring it and brought it last year against Chicago.

 

They were in [expletive] tears after losing to us in March, FFS.

 

The Bulls swept the season series 3-0 last year. The Bulls also had HCA. Did you consider the Bulls as favorites in the ECF? Playoffs are a different beast, they are played differently, and they are officiated differently.

[Guest]

That logic is [expletive] silly when being brought up about Bulls/Heat. The Heat bring it and brought it last year against Chicago.

 

They were in [expletive] tears after losing to us in March, FFS.

 

The Bulls swept the season series 3-0 last year. The Bulls also had HCA. Did you consider the Bulls as favorites in the ECF? Playoffs are a different beast, they are played differently, and they are officiated differently.

 

In small sample sizes like that I couldn't care less what the actual outcomes were. Just about every game the two teams played last year was highly contested and close. That's the conclusion I am willing to come to after watching 9 games between the teams as they are more or less comprised now. They play close games.

[Old Style]

It's simple math. They have three great players while the Bulls only have one.

Good thing that they don't play 3 on 1 then.

 

And I think Bosh is overrated and Deng is probably underrated in this discussion.

[Guest]

Fun fact...the bulls are ranked higher offensively (1) than they are defensively (3) at the moment.

[bukie]

I'm curious if Deng's contract included a bonus for making an All-Star appearance.

 

Because if it did, the All-Star selection could push the Bulls into the luxury tax.

[Ryne Ween]

I'm curious if Deng's contract included a bonus for making an All-Star appearance.

 

Because if it did, the All-Star selection could push the Bulls into the luxury tax.

 

I dont know if incentive bonuses even exist in NBA deals, or if they did would they count toward the tax. I kinda doubt it. But either way, poor JR if it does push them into the lux tax. Time to start pumping some of that sweet comcast money the blackhawks and cubs make you back onto the hardwood.

[17 Seconds]

the bulls were in every game against the heat during the playoff series and that was with rose playing like complete ass.

 

i don't know how you can say the buklls can't beat them. spongeworthy almost sounds like a heat troll in this thread.

[SpongeWorthy]

wat

 

this is the only thing I've said w/r/t to the Heat/Bulls in the last few pages:

 

And the Heat aren't that great. I think people got scared of them in theory more than in practice because they figured they could add to the Big 3 and become invincible. But they're still weak where they were last year and Wade's a year older.

[Guest]

wat

 

this is the only thing I've said w/r/t to the Heat/Bulls in the last few pages:

 

And the Heat aren't that great. I think people got scared of them in theory more than in practice because they figured they could add to the Big 3 and become invincible. But they're still weak where they were last year and Wade's a year older.

 

yea i was pretty sure he confused you with someone else.