UMFan83

lol one of my friends kept telling me its suspicious the Sox didnt extend him yet and thought we could have a shot. guess not.

Devil's Advocate, a couple of reasons: -The 3 games between the Bulls and Heat were decided by a combined 8 points (3 pts, 4 pts, 1 pt). 2 of the 3 were in Chicago and 1 was without LeBron. Another Bosh shot 1-18, and in the 3rd, the Bulls won from a questionable foul to Deng. No foul is called there, the Heat are likely up 3 with under 20 secs left. -The Heat used the regular season to gel with each other and learn how to perform the best with the pieces they had. After that disasterous 5 game losing streak, I think they only lost 1 more game the rest of the year, maybe 2. -No one expected the Bulls to win the East this year, so its trendy to say the Bulls are a year away and don't have enough experience to win this year. -The concept that the Bulls have been playing in top gear all year long. People don't believe they have "another gear" that other experienced playoff teams have been saving for right now. -One thing I heard on the Simmons podcast yesterday made me think. They talked about how when the Heat signed LeBron to go along with Wade, people were gushing about how they can run the pick and roll with each other and play a 2 man game based off their athleticism and speed. Well the funny thing is, the Heat barely used that play most of the season. In fact when people questioned Spo about it he basically brushed it aside and seemed annoyed it was brought up. Well over the last month of the season, they've started to use that play a little bit more now, supposedly. And its worked really really well. If they can get that going in the playoffs...damn I don't necessarily agree with any or all of this, again just playing devil's advocate here.

The talk of playoff experience is overrated IMO. It's a factor no doubt but in terms of people saying "THIS Bulls team hasn't made it out of the first round." Ok well...THIS team hasn't but all of the key players have significant experience in both the NBA playoffs and NCAA Tournament. They understand what it takes to co mpete in the playoffs. It's not like they start playing game 1 and think "holy [expletive] this is completely different than the regular season." Some will argue that Rose, Noah, etc. don't know what it takes to get deep in the playoffs and win a title because they haven't done a playoff run yet. But neither did Pierce, Allen and Garnett their first year together. This iteration of the Lakers didn't have playoff experience together when they went to the Finals...Gasol joined mid-year, he barely had chemistry with the rest of the team. The Bulls all individually have a decent amount of playoff experience. They've gotten to where they are by playing their asses off, hitting an extra gear when they needed to, played and won against various different styles, survived close late game situations and came out on top. I just don't see how it has a significant effect. But if the Bulls lose to the Magic, this is what it will be blamed on. It's a really lazy thing for a sportswriter to say IMO, but I'd welcome counter arguments.

If anything, Granger should be trying to demotivate the Bulls. If I were Granger, this is what I'd say: "Holy crap, we've gotta play the Bulls? Oh man, I am pretty scared. Not only of losing the series, but losing embarrassingly. They are easily the best team in the NBA and could beat us 4 on 5 without a doubt. I seriously am not looking forward to playing them because I know they will show us no mercy and shred us to pieces, making it hard to go home to our wives and kids. How am I going to be able to look my wife in the eye after getting humiliated at the hands of the Bulls?"

I'd closing it out in game 6 would be a lot more likely than winning game 7 on the road.

This was Thib's reaction when he heard about Granger's comments regarding the Bulls: http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/2235/img2011041300002.jpg

I mostly agree with you, but last year's team could also get physical when needed to, especially the Vancouver series. If the other team started knocking them around, they could give it right back. For the most part they let the other team try to goon it up and then beat them with speed and skill, so you are right there. I do wonder though if having someone flying around hitting Canucks could have stopped all the momentum Vancouver had in the 1st period a little earlier though. The sad thing is, Scott is essential worthless unless you need someone to take a 5 minute penalty. And only then, I'm giving him 30 seconds to instigate the fight before moving on.

Did you go temporarily dyslexic during that Celtics Heat pick? Or reverse jinx. I don't think you really are giving up on the C's because of the last couple of weeks. I hate situations in sports where the general opinion goes completely in one direction despite the fact that the other team is good, so I think I might change my pick to Celtics over Heat. I've seen the same games everyone has seen but I've also seen an apathetic team play .500 ball the last half of the season, have everyone count them out then go on to game 7 of the Finals. This team seems a little different, but at the same time, they were good enough to win 56 games this year, they have an extra gear that they aren't showing. Miami is still flawed and can still just as easily crumble like they did during their 5 game losing streak in February. You cant just forget about all those disapointing losses they've had this year. We'll see but I feel like people are giving up way too soon on this celtics team. They have to have another gear that they haven't showed in the last month.

Randomly, I was looking at some old playoff results, and wow I forgot how bad the NBA was in 2004 with regards to offense. Look at some of the point totals for teams in the playoffs: 56 63 64 65 (two times) 67 68 (two times) 69 (two times - one was winning team) 70 (two times) 71 (three times) 72 (two times - both were winning teams) 73 (two times - one was winning team) 74 (four times - one was winning team) 75 (three times) 76 77 (three times - one was winning team) 78 (six times - 3 were winning teams) 79 (four times) So all in all, 40 teams scored less than 80 points in those playoffs in 82 total games. 9 times a team scored less than 80 and WON. The worst though was the Pacers/Pistons Eastern Conference Finals. In that series, neither team scored more than 85 points in the entire series, including a thrilling 69-65 Detroit victory in game 6, a game that was surely suspended midway through the 3rd quarter due to boredom. Teams only reached the 80 point plateau 3 total times, and the Pacers couldnt get to 70 points in half of the games. Look at these ugly ass scores: Game 1 @ Conseco Fieldhouse, Indiana: Indiana 78, Detroit 74 Game 2 @ Conseco Fieldhouse, Indiana: Detroit 72, Indiana 67 Game 3 @ The Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit: Detroit 85, Indiana 78 Game 4 @ The Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit: Indiana 83, Detroit 68 Game 5 @ Conseco Fieldhouse, Indiana: Detroit 83, Indiana 65 Game 6 @ The Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit: Detroit 69, Indiana 65 Man I hope the NBA doesn't go back to this style of play.

Question about the Pacers...they still have all that cap space this summer right? Obviously everything is up in the air with the lockout and stuff, but who do you guys plan on targeting? Hoping to get 1 big piece, or fill some needed role players?

Maybe it has to do with the potential end of NBA basketball in Sacramento.

I cannot see a way the Bulls win this series in more than 5, maybe 6 if the Pacers prove extra fiesty. I'm the eternal pessimist and I cannot see any way the Pacers win this series, once less cause doubt at any point.

Oh well. We outplayed them in the 2nd and slightly outplyed them in the 3rd despite the fact they went into a shell. I'm not convinced that the Canucks are going to run away with the series. It really would have been nice if we could have gotten at least 1 goal though, just to give Vancouver something to think about between games.

Go for it! We need all the mojo we can get.

Great period even though we didn't score. We might not win the game, but if we can play solid in the 3rd, we've proven that we can play with these guys. All we need is one of the 2 games in Vancouver to have the edge in the series.

Holy [expletive] [expletive]. Gotta give Luongo credit, this is the best game I've seen him have

This is true. This game could be tied with the puck going 2 inches the other way twice.

Wow...we just have absolutely no luck tonight....wow just wow....goal posts, amazing saves, missed connections etc

Lu is really on tonight. Can't believe we didnt score there

I don't know about that. Just the fact that they have that gear that they showed to start the game puts us at a big disadvantage.

2 things... 1) Hawks have to be the worst team in the NHL at clearing the puck. They constantly turn it over with dumb and/or lazy passes, lose board battles, etc. 2) Are the Hawks the only team that has this much trouble handling the puck, specifically when receiving passes. I see the Hawks set up a nice play only to see the centering pass go off the stick and slid away. Sure its gonna happen but it seems like it happen all the time for the Hawks. And wow a couple of fantastic saves for Luongo. If he doesn't stop that shot from Campbell we still some very important momentum heading into the intermission.

I'm guessing Seabs spends less than 2 minutes in there

We lost game one two years ago as well didn't we? yep

Guess this is what we get for beating them 2 straight years. Now they are going to crush us when we're down. Then again, we looked awful and lost 5-1 in game 1 last year and that turned out well for us.

Took us like 7 minutes to possess the puck in our offensive zone