{"id":15429,"date":"2011-05-15T12:15:34","date_gmt":"2011-05-15T17:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15429"},"modified":"2011-06-01T16:21:24","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T21:21:24","slug":"miami-heat-vs-chicago-bulls-series-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/miami-heat-vs-chicago-bulls-series-preview-15429\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls Series Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat AT Chicago Bulls<\/strong>
\nMay 15, 2011 at 8 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 CHI -2<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 CHI -2<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 182.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 180<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 MIA -175, CHI +155<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 CHI -130, MIA +110<\/strong><\/p>\n

Series Odds:\u00a0 MIA -180, CHI +160<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Heat
The Miami frontcourt will have to step up this series<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This series brings together the two best players so far in the 2011 playoffs:\u00a0 Derrick Rose and LeBron James.\u00a0 Rose led the Bulls to the best record, but it is James’ Miami Heat with the best playoff record at 8-2, having lost only 1 game to each of their first round and second round opponents.<\/p>\n

The Bulls have went 8-3 but may have faced the easiest road to a Conference Final in recent history, after playing the 8-games-below .500 Indiana Pacers in the opening round and then facing a 3-games-over .500 Atlanta Hawks team.\u00a0 While the Bulls won both series with relative ease, but they did face a lot of close games against two opponents that just couldn’t close the Bulls out in the fourth quarter of close games.<\/p>\n

Now we’re going to do a position-by-position break down, much as I have for the other series I’ve covered.<\/p>\n

Point Guard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derrick Rose vs.\u00a0 Mario Chalmers \/ Mike Bibby<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s questionable whether Bibby will see many minutes in this series given the defensive problems he would create here.\u00a0 Chalmers is a much better defender but still will be unable to cover Rose, and if Spoelstra already realizes that he may make the adjustment of putting shooting guard Dwyane Wade on the Bulls MVP point guard.\u00a0 Rose and Wade are similar players, but it’s likely the Bulls will keep Ronnie Brewer and Keith Bogans on Wade.\u00a0 It’s the Heat that are going to have to make the adjustment.<\/p>\n

Rose has scored 25 or more in 7 of the Bulls’ 12 games, including a 44 point playoff career high in the 99-82 Game 3 win against Atlanta.\u00a0 Chalmers, meanwhile, has had two big games and nothing else of note.\u00a0 In Game 5 against the Sixers in the opening round, Chalmers scored 20, and he scored 17 in the lone series loss to the Celtics.<\/p>\n

It’s obvious to see that any matchup against the league MVP at PG would result in a huge Bulls advantage and this is no exception.<\/p>\n

Advantage:\u00a0 Chicago<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shooting Guard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keith Bogans \/ Ronnie Brewer vs. Dwayne Wad<\/strong>e<\/p>\n

While both Bogans and Brewer offer the Bulls little offensively, their defense on Wade will prove to be one of the crucial elements of this series.\u00a0 Wade has scored 30 or more 3 times so far in the Heat’s 10 games.\u00a0 He’s also logged 39 minutes or more in 7 of the Heat’s 10 games.\u00a0 Wade did experience his lowest scoring average since a injury riddled 07-08 campaign, but it was his efficiency improving that gave the Heat no reason at all for complaint.\u00a0 Besides that, he was sharing the ball with another big scorer in James and a player who at least does command the occasional double team in Bosh.\u00a0 Brewer will probably be the better defender here on Wade because he has better lateral foot speed and doesn’t fall for as many fakes as Bogans, a crucial element in Wade’s arsenal, as he’ll look to get both off their feet and cause them to commit “cheap” fouls.<\/p>\n

Advantage:\u00a0 Miami<\/strong><\/p>\n

Small Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luol Deng vs. LeBron James<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s clear to any basketball fan at all that the Heat have this one covered, but to those who have carefully followed the Bulls, they will know that Deng is quickly establishing himself as one of the league’s premier small forwards.\u00a0 Against the second leading vote getter for the Defensive Player of the Year, Josh Smith, Deng held his own and bettered Smith in 4 of the 6 games.\u00a0 The two games which he didn’t, Smith went off for huge games, though, so the “big game” factor of LeBron James certainly plays a large element here.\u00a0 LeBron has a huge strength advantage over the slender Deng and will probably look to post up more than usual.\u00a0\u00a0 Expect quick Bulls double teams when he does, which will only result in more easy looks for James’ teammates.\u00a0 If Deng can play somewhat effective defense it could enable the Bulls to sneak by in this series, but it’s hard to fathom Deng holding LeBron under 25 points in any games this series.<\/p>\n

Advantage:\u00a0 Miami<\/strong><\/p>\n

Power Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carlos Boozer vs. Chris Bosh<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his days with the Raptors, Bosh sure looked a lot better.\u00a0 Deferring too much to his two all star teammates proved to be a problem for Bosh all year and his confidence seemingly wavered as a result of not being “the man” on his team.\u00a0 His scoring average went from 24.0 points per game with the Raptors down to 18.7 with the Heat.\u00a0 What is troubling, though, is that given the Heat’s problems on the boards at times, Bosh’s rebounding has gone down to 8.3 boards a game (from 10.8 last year) despite still receiving the same amount of minutes.\u00a0 He also used to average 1.0 blocked shots a game, but that number has been halved this season, further illustrating his ineffectiveness on the interior defensively.<\/p>\n

Boozer has the kind of bull-like (no pun intended) body that will give Bosh problems.\u00a0 Boozer’s pumpfakes will give Bosh problems, as well.\u00a0 While Boozer has been ineffective so far in the playoffs, this could be the matchup that brings out the best in him and enables him to break his funk.\u00a0 Bosh is the superior player, however, given his length and athleticism.\u00a0 Bosh had two very poor games against the Celtics, one of which the Heat lost (his 6 point 1 of 6 FG performance in game 3), but he’s also played 40 minutes or more in 5 of the Heat’s 10 games, since the Heat don’t have Udonis Haslem to back him up now.<\/p>\n

Advantage:\u00a0 Miami (by a hair)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Center<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joakim Noah vs. Erick Dampier \/ Joel Anthony \/ Zydrunas Ilgauskas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Noah isn’t exactly gifted offensively, but he’s probably better than all 3 Bulls’ centers offensively, with Ilgauskas’ effective jumpshot being the only other tool offensively of the four players.\u00a0 Noah scores most of his baskets on uncontested dunks and put backs, while Dampier and Anthony seldom provide even that much.\u00a0 Joel Anthony is a good shot blocker and defensive player, but his offensive deficiencies make playing him big minutes a questionable proposition, as it would allow Noah to roam on defense and play more effective help-side defense.\u00a0 Regardless of how much Noah may get under players and fans’ skin alike, it’s undeniable that he is easily better than the Miami trio of centers.<\/p>\n

Advantage:\u00a0 Chicago<\/strong><\/p>\n

With advantages at 3 of the 5 positions (all 3 being the “Big 3’s” positions, of course), it’s hard not to realize why Miami is favored in this series.\u00a0 Despite all the experts and oddsmakers predicting a close series, I don’t think it will be at all.\u00a0 I firmly expect LeBron to dominate Deng and for Wade to find ways to make Chicago’s effective defensive two guards into practice dummies.<\/p>\n

Series Prediction:\u00a0 Miami in 5 or 6<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami Heat AT Chicago Bulls May 15, 2011 at 8 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 CHI -2 Current Line:\u00a0 CHI -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 182.5 Current Total:\u00a0 180 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 MIA -175, CHI +155 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 CHI -130, MIA +110 Series Odds:\u00a0 MIA -180, CHI +160 This series brings together the two best players so far in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[174,707],"class_list":["post-15429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-miami-heat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15429"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15944,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15429\/revisions\/15944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}