The Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls are as close a matchup as we can imagine; yes, the same was said of the Heat’s series against the Boston Celtics. No one counted on Jermaine O’Neal’s wrist being broken and Rajon Rondo dislocating his elbow in Game 3. Miami romped in the series sense (though most of the games were close), while the Bulls took their time and some great haymakers from the Atlanta Hawks to move on.
LeBron James, Miami Heat Clicking, Should Get By Chicago Bulls (If Barely)
It’s Miami’s poise and offensive execution against Boston that has me picking the Heat in seven over the Bulls. After a season’s worth of late-game failures due to out-of-rhythm, isolation-created jumpers, Miami committed itself to penetration and resulting drive-and-kick opportunities against the Celtics.
To have LeBron James and Dwyane Wade buy into that? It’s huge! Chicago is built (like Boston) to force difficult shots at the rim and beyond the arc. They want LeBron and Wade to create jumpers off the bounce … for themselves. But the Heat’s duo largely avoided that in the Boston series, making the painted area home.
Chicago has a tremendous advantage on the bench — no lie, the Bulls have four bench players better than any Heat players beyond James, Wade and Chris Bosh, and four of CHI’s starters (excepting Keith Bogans) are ahead on that list, too. Yes, that means Chicago has eight of the top 11 players in this series.
Uh, can I change my pick?
No, because LeBron and Wade are that good, and while Rose is spectacular, a focused, committed and tactically smart Miami team isn’t getting beat by anyone. Miami in 7.
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