The guy who wrote the article that NSJ and I posted has penned another gem. His analysis of the Bulls rotation is comical and he completely overlooks how the 2nd unit on the Bulls has completely shut down teams defensively all year (including his beloved Heat).
Quote:
I know what you're thinking: The Chicago Bulls swept the season series against the Miami Heat, forget being hopeless against the Heat, how on Earth can you suggest they'd even lose?
Convincingly.
Save for extremely rare occasions, the best team wins over a seven game series in basketball. And, even though recent struggles have led to the Heat falling below the Bulls in the league standings, the Miami Heat clearly have a more talented team than the Chicago Bulls.
Now, you're going to hear people talking about how the Heat can't win in close games or beat good teams. They're going to tell you the Heat aren't deep enough to win and that LeBron James(notes) isn't as good as everyone thinks he is.
They're wrong on all accounts.
The fact is, the sample size of games isn't large enough yet on close games to mean anything and comparing results against good teams in the regular season isn't at all representative of the playoffs. It's a deceptive use of statistics. In the playoffs you play the same team consecutively and dissect all of their problems on a nightly basis and in the video room. This presents a lot more problems for the less talented team than it does the less "harmonious" team. You might take solace in the three regular season wins against the Heat now Bulls fans, but know that the Heat (and countless other title winning teams) have beaten teams they haven't done well against in the regular season.
Crushed them, in fact.
Remember 2006? Everyone said that the Heat couldn't win. They were too old, too slow and too selfish. It was practically given that the Heat would lose to the New Jersey Nets who had Jason Kidd(notes), Vince Carter(notes), Richard Jefferson(notes) and played an uptempo style of team basketball that troubled the Heat in the regular season. They were the "better team" because they were younger and played together. Remember what happened there? The Heat lost the regular season series 1-3 to the Nets, then beat them 4-1 in the playoffs.
The Heat dominated because their superior talent allowed them to exploit weaknesses.
But aren't the Bulls better than the Heat? Absolutely not. They're not even as deep as everyone makes them out to be. The Bulls are essentially four players deep before there is a significant drop off in production. After you get passed Rose, Boozer, Noah and Deng the next best players are Kyle Korver(notes), Taj Gibson(notes) and Ronnie Brewer(notes) all of whom average six to seven points and don't intimidate anyone. After that, Gibson, Brewer and Korver, the list of players just gets more embarrassing if you believe that's possible. Unfortunately for the Bulls, they are in no position to dismiss a bench of Eddie House(notes), James Jomes, Mike Bibby(notes), Zydrunas Ilgauskas(notes) and Mike Miller(notes).
You want to talk about deep teams? The Los Angeles Lakers can bring Lamar Odom(notes), Shannon Brown(notes) and Steve Blake(notes) off their bench. The Celtics boast Shaq, Jeff Green(notes), Glen Davis(notes) and Troy Murphy(notes). These are actually productive benches. Great benches have players on them that would start on other teams. Neither the Heat or Bulls can claim to have that.
Once Udonis Haslem(notes) comes back, the Heat's brusier and a poor man's Joakim Noah(notes), the Miami Heat will have an even clearer advantage over the Bulls. The Bulls can boast to have a better defense than the Heat, although no by much, but the Heat simply have better players top to bottom. LeBron and Wade have enough of an advantage over Luol Deng(notes) and Derrick Rose(notes) to compensate for the advantage the Bulls have in the front court once Haslem comes back.
Chicago fans are praying that magic and chemistry matter more than talent so that the team players of Chicago can beat the more talented players of Miami.
I can't wait to see how the Heat perform against the intangiBulls in a playoff series.
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Juice's Lecture Notes wrote:
I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?