Heat Vs. Bulls: Eastern Conference Finals Begin Sunday

Two series in, and that theory couldn’t look more wrong.

The Heat are 8-2 in the playoffs, and James and Wade couldn’t be more equal if they’d actually made a point to be equal. The numbers lay it out.

So it’s worth looking at how Rose did against the Heat this season in three regular season games.

Short version: he killed them. Rose averaging 29 points per game against Miami, shooting 43 percent from the floor (True Shooting of .528; subpar, but not bad against a great defense). Rose also added six assists to three turnovers a game, and -- most importantly -- Chicago won all three.

As it turns out, while Rose did end up earning more free throws as the Hawks’ series wore on, in the aggregate, his lower-than-usual free throw rate is a bit worrisome. Take a look at a comparison of his free throw rate from early in the Indiana series to the games since.

In the Indiana series, Rose exceeded his regular season free throw attempts per field goal attempts average (0.347) four times in five games. Those were the four games Chicago won. The Bulls lost Game 4, in which Rose’s free throws were down (22 FGAs, 4 FTAs).

Craig Sager will work the sidelines for the Heat-Bulls series. Given that the primary colors for both Chicago and Miami are red, black and white, we can expect Sager to trot out lime green, electric blue and bright orange for his fashion palette. Can’t wait.

See the full Heat vs. Bulls schedule.