2011 NBA Playoffs

[Rockstar Matt]

Sorry being a tad bit late, but the Conference Finals are here! (And Game 1 between CHI-MIA is already over )

The match-ups are such:

Eastern Conference Finals:

1.) Chicago Bulls 62-20 vs. 2.) Miami Heat 58-24

Western Conference Finals:

3.) Dallas Mavericks 57-25 vs. 4.) Oklahoma City Thunder 55-27

[MDC]

Good lord, what a fantastic game.

Taj Gibson, I have no words

EDIT: This too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQTlYUTt844&feature=youtu.be

[infrared41]

Sorry being a tad bit late, but the Conference Finals are here! (And Game 1 between CHI-MIA is already over )

The match-ups are such:

Eastern Conference Finals:

1.) Chicago Bulls 62-20 vs. 2.) Miami Heat 58-24

Western Conference Finals:

3.) Dallas Mavericks 57-25 vs. 4.) Oklahoma City Thunder 55-27

Thanks for that. I doubt anyone would have known about it had you not informed us.

[infrared41]

So the Bulls won in a blowout. Are all the doubters happy now?

[loogodude90]

I'm still predicting MIA to win the series. Just a feeling. BTW, I hate MIA.

EDIT: I'll go a step further and say that I think MIA will win it all.

[Lights Out]

The Bulls played really well for sure, but I still don't see them beating the Heat in the series.

[dfwabel]

A team does not need to be better each night, they just to be better on four nights.

[pmoehrin]

Miami seemed to look really good in the first half and then completely got away from what their gameplan was in the second half.

They cannot beat Chicago in a half court game, and that's what it looked like they were trying to do. They also stopped double teaming Rose, why I don't know, and went man to man. Did they forget that Chicago is a great passing team or something?

The one thing that was clear coming out of game one was that there is no way Miami can win a bench game against Chicago. They just don't have anybody, and Chicago really didn't even seem to lose a beat with their second unit at certain points in the game.

[MDC]

Thats exactly right, its bench play.The Heat may have th best group of 3 in the series, but the Bulls have the best group of 9. Brewer and Deng were clearly in the heads of Wade and Deng. Without them. its a losing battle for the Heat. Excellent defensive play by the best defensive team in the league

[infrared41]

To be honest, I think it would be pretty interesting to see the Heat go all the way. I may be in the minority, but I really enjoy watching Wade and LeBron play together. I'm not at all opposed to the idea of the Heat winning it all; I just don't think they will. The Bulls are younger than Boston and they play better defense. I don't think Miami can handle Chicago as easily as they handled Boston. I'm not taking anything away from the Heat but I think Chicago will be a much bigger challenge than the Celtics were. We saw that tonight. Miami just doesn't have the depth to bring this thing home.

[Lights Out]

If you turn out to be right, Infrared, I'll have to wonder if the Heat will ever win a title as currently constructed. They are so hamstrung cap-wise by the Big Three that they can't upgrade the Other Two or the bench anything more than incrementally.

[JoseJames]

If Heat doesn't change for game 2 & the others... maybe they'll be sweep by the Bulls

[Rockstar Matt]

Sorry being a tad bit late, but the Conference Finals are here! (And Game 1 between CHI-MIA is already over )

The match-ups are such:

Eastern Conference Finals:

1.) Chicago Bulls 62-20 vs. 2.) Miami Heat 58-24

Western Conference Finals:

3.) Dallas Mavericks 57-25 vs. 4.) Oklahoma City Thunder 55-27

Thanks for that. I doubt anyone would have known about it had you not informed us.

Oh, no doubt. I just thought since I had done so for the first two rounds, I'd do so again.

[The_Admiral]

The Bulls aren't going to win in a sweep, but I'm still picking them to ultimately win the series. You know why? Because they beat Miami every single time they played this year. Some of you Cleveland-hating Heat sackriders are all like "well, sure, the Bulls swept the Heat this season and finished well ahead of them in the standings, but I dunno, you guys!!!" Excuse me for coming to a conclusion based on empirical evidence.

[TalktoChuck]

Because they beat Miami every single time they played this year.

While that is true, that stat is a little misleading. Of those three wins, one was without LeBron and (if I'm not mistaken) they won all of them by a combined total of 8 points. So while they did win every game during the regular season it's not like they dominated those three games.

But with all that said, I agree with you that the Bulls are going to win the series, most likely in 6 games.

[gingerbreadmann]

Because they beat Miami every single time they played this year.

While that is true, that stat is a little misleading. Of those three wins, one was without LeBron and (if I'm not mistaken) they won all of them by a combined total of 8 points. So while they did win every game during the regular season it's not like they dominated those three games.

But with all that said, I agree with you that the Bulls are going to win the series, most likely in 6 games.

Good post. I don't think 3 straight wins has any future implications anyway, even if they were all blowouts. Look, the C's won their first three over Miami in the regular season and obviously didn't win in the playoffs. Besides, if these two teams played 10 playoff series, each team would probably win anywhere from 4-6 of those. Whoever wins this series will probably be the team who plays better over these couple weeks. Personally I think Chicago is better overall and will win but you can never count out Miami with the players they have. They can take over a game at any time.

[loogodude90]

The Bulls aren't going to win in a sweep, but I'm still picking them to ultimately win the series. You know why? Because they beat Miami every single time they played this year. Some of you Cleveland-hating Heat sackriders are all like "well, sure, the Bulls swept the Heat this season and finished well ahead of them in the standings, but I dunno, you guys!!!" Excuse me for coming to a conclusion based on empirical evidence.

Empirical evidence from the regular season can be extremely misleading. The Wizards beat the Celtics twice this season. The Wizards. The Spurs won their conference and got eliminated in the first round. There are so many other factors during the long regular season, that I don't consider the Bulls' 3-0 record during the Heat this year to mean a whole lot. It's certainly worth mentioning, but it shouldn't be the sole basis for someone's prediction for this series.

[Saintsfan]

I do think the Bulls regular season record against the Heat means something, especially coupled with the game 1 blowout. Having gone through getting one monkey off there back, Wade and James have to do that all over again, that's not easy and may turn out to be a big factor in this series, the emotional and psychological aspect. (Its why the Heat overdoing the celebrations after the Celtics series was such an issue).

[Kevin W.]

It means something, but 99% of the time regular season games don't mean in the playoffs.

[floydnimrod]

My only comments on "David Stern Conspiracy:" Do you think if he really was fixing games that it show what side he was 'for' in a potential lockout? If he fixed the games so the Heat would win, would he be supporting the notion of letting players 'gang up' and make group decisions on where to play?