It seems like the Chicago Bulls spent every last ounce of available energy and every last healthy or semi-healthy body simply to get out of the first round.
It seems like the Miami Heat have not played in about a month, spending that time waiting for pretenders to wrap up their postseason series, chuckling to themselves and speculating on who was the lone wolf who did not cast a first-place MVP vote for LeBRon James.
So it seems like the fifth-seeded Bulls have no chance against the top-seeded Heat when their Eastern Conference semifinal series opens Monday.
But there is the memory of the Bulls ending the Heat’s 27-game winning streak in late March that has you saying, “What the heck. Let’s wait and see what happens.”
The Heat will find out that the Bulls are not the Milwaukee Bucks. And the Bulls will find out that the Heat are not the Brooklyn Nets.
But then there’s also the mystery of whether Derrick Rose will play. One former Bull with several championship rings has a strong opinion:
Steve Kerr, the TNT broadcaster, said last week that Rose “owes it to his teammates” to get back on the court given that they are playing through pain.
“If this is about, ‘Hey, it doesn’t feel right and I’m worried I can hurt it,’ then no way should he play,” Kerr said on an ESPN radio interview. “But if this is just about, ‘You know, gosh, I’m just not quite confident yet,’ I would appeal to him and say, ‘Can you give us 20 minutes?’ And if you’re Derrick, you’ve been watching Noah and Hinrich play on one leg this whole series, at what point do you start to feel sort of self-conscious and guilty about what’s unfolding?
The Small vs. Big Factor: No team plays small ball more – and more efficiently – than the Heat. Their overall athleticism and quickness certainly helps, but there are two players that are primarily responsible for their success when playing without a true center. On offense, it’s Chris Bosh, a face-up player who is comfortable all the way out to the arc, which opens lanes for their slashers. On defense, it’s LeBron James and his ability to defend four positions. In this series, the Heat may find it tougher to go exclusively small because Chicago’s big rotation of Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson – while not enormous – are highly skilled offensive players and dogged rebounders and defenders, presenting a physical matchup for the slender Bosh. Boozer was Chicago’s most reliable scorer in the first round and Noah’s passing beats scrambling defenses. At the defensive end, Noah is among the game’s top big men and Gibson is very tough. You can expect to see Miami go to Chris “Birdman” Andersen to match up or even Rashard Lewis in spots to pull one of the bigs away from the paint. It would be a far more intriguing chess match if the Heat didn’t have such a huge advantage at the small spots.
The March 27 Factor. Including the playoffs, the Heat are a staggering 41-2 since Super Bowl Sunday. The Bulls lost more games in their first-round series. However, buried in the recesses of everyone’s minds is Chicago’s success during the season against Miami. The Heat were just 2-2 vs. the Bulls this season, and both losses had some significance. The first came at home in early January, when the Heat were going through their roughest patch of the season, dropping six games in a 10-game span. Miami was manhandled on the boards by Chicago, 48-28. The second came on March 27 and was a bit more memorable, as the Bulls ended the Heat’s 27-game winning streak on national TV. This time, the physical play was directed at James, who admitted afterward that “it is getting to me a little bit.” That game had a playoff atmosphere, and both teams played the fourth quarter as if it were a Game 7. The Bulls know they can beat the Heat when the stakes are high. Now, can they do it four times?
The MVP Factor: James has won MVP in four of the last five seasons. The only time he did not win it was 2011, when Chicago’s Derrick Rose won it. But James is playing, and Rose – as far as anyone knows – is not. There is more to this than simply who is suiting up and who is wearing a suit. James controls virtually every game he plays, both physically and psychologically. It was no accident when earlier this season he went two weeks without committing a foul. As the game’s best player, he gets the most favorable whistle in the game. Without Rose, the Bulls have no one who commands the attention and respect of Dwyane Wade, let alone James himself. That all-for-one, one-for-all stuff may have worked against the easily rattled Nets, but the lack of a superstar – and the calls that he gets – will be a big part of Chicago’s downfall.
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