<div align="center"> <font size=""3"">Bulls Sweep The Heat: Heading To Mo-Town</font></div> On Saturday April 21 the Bulls opened their 2007 post season with an opening round game against the defending champions Miami Heat. After a hard-earned win the media still wrote them off as first round drop outs. What happened to those people after the Bulls continued to pound Miami into submission forcing a four game sweep? Well, they simply faded away as they did when those same analysts wrote off the Detroit Pistons in the finals a few years ago. Pat Riley himself made it clear to Scott Skiles after the final encounter that he believes this Bulls team can go far and that they’re “on the edge of greatness.” That’s high praise coming from such a prestigious head coach. Chicago will now take on the Pistons in the second round of the Eastern Conference semi-finals. This is a series that could very well bring back the heated rivalry that once stood as one of the greatest in North American sports. The talk is already through the airwaves with both sides trading words and insults leading up to their first Playoff encounter on Saturday May 5. Andrs Nocioni has already stated that his Bulls would win the series in seven games. Flip Saunders, head coach of the Detroit Pistons, backfired stating “the season series that the Bulls took means nothing. What matters is what happens in the playoffs.” While true that playoff time is what decides who will go on to win the big prize and who will go home, it is rather foolish to look upon the regular season as simply “meaningless.” However, Flip did continue stating that “these two teams are like mirror images of one another.” [div=50%]The Bulls will be looking to advance to the Conference finals for the first time in almost a decade, but they will have their toughest opposition in the East in this round instead of the last. Detroit will bring a high octane all-around game that will smother the Bulls. However, the Bulls are much faster and have younger players to push out the Pistons. The Bulls also have veteran leadership like Detroit has with Ben Wallace, P.J. Brown and Adrian Griffin on the roster. Griffin hasn’t seen much playing time, but his words on the bench can speak volumes to young players and that is why he has been so valuable to Scott Skiles and John Paxson. This series may spark the old rivalry between Detroit and Chicago that dates back to the early days of the Jordan era and the bad boys. It would be hard to disagree considering all of the talk surrounding this series and that both cities’ fans realize it may take a lot to put either team away in order to move on. • Luol Deng will likely be the main focus of the Pistons tonight considering what he did to Miami basically every night. The man is on fire and his confidence is at an all-time high right now. He'll surely be looking to keep pace and drop 25 to 35 points every game. • Andrs Nocioni is the mind games master on this Bulls roster. One of the best at taking charges in the league and Detroit knows this very well. He may be nursing a lingering injury, but that doesn't mean he won't be prepared for any game. He works hard and won't let anything stop his motivations. You have to respect Noce, or else pay a heavy price. [/div] • Ben Gordon has been solid so far and he'll be looking to continue that trend heading into the Palace for game one. He's been working hard at playing the point and has done fairly well minus the turnovers and mishandles. It seems as though if he can manage to hit his first few shots he won't allow his performance to drop. The Pistons may play him hard in the beginning of games and let him slide into his own mess. • Kirk Hinrich has been in foul trouble throughout the entire opening series against Miami. He's still played very well despite his limited minutes on the floor as seen in game three. He will likely take up guarding Richard Hamilton throughout the series and as we've seen many times before that definitely does not fair well for Rip. • Ben Wallace will have to bang the boards, but it will be interesting to see if the Bulls pair him against Rasheed Wallace or Chris Webber. Webber is slow, but still fairly dangerous, but Rasheed would force Ben out of his normal game since he likes to take the occasional three. Other key factors that will help the Bulls edge out the Pistons will be bench play. Thabo Sefolosha has become a solid contributor off of the bench and Chris Duhon is back to his old self again. Tyrus has been rather quiet since the beginning of the Heat series and Skiles made him pay for that with limited minutes. We'll see if Thomas will be given a different role and more playing time in this upcoming series, but you can bet he will due to his energy and athleticism. Andrs Nocioni and Tyrus Thomas on the same floor could be extremely difficult for the Pistons to handle. Rasheed Wallace is the Detroit player of the year in my opinion. His ability to overpower most forwards and still step back for easy threes makes him a major threat to the Bulls' chances. They'll have to play him hard, but also make sure that other key players aren't left unguarded. Prince for instance is a lengthy forward who could pounce on open opportunities. However, the Bulls are a much faster team with lengthy players of their own such as Deng and Sefolosha and would be hard pressed to leave any man wide open or given too much space to work with. The Bulls will need to keep playing tough defense while moving the ball around quickly as in the previous series with Miami. The Bulls were very good at preventing their previous opponents too many offensive rebounds. They will need to continue dominating the boards and with Ben Wallace, Luol Deng and Thabo Sefolosha that shouldn't be too much of an issue. <div align="center"></div> Basically the same as the previous series. With the Bulls' depth and resurgence it is hard to bet against them even though they will be facing a tough Detroit team. Both teams have unselfish players who distribute the ball more frequently then most teams. If everything falls into place and everyone makes their usual contributions night in and night out this Bulls team has the chance to take out the Pistons in under seven games. If the Bulls crash and burn they will have a difficult time staying with the Pistons who could toss them out in six games. Above all else, expect a very tight series. <div align="center"> <font size=""3"">Second Round Schedule</font> (1) <font color=""RoyalBlue"">Detroit Pistons</font> vs. <font color=""DarkRed"">Chicago Bulls</font> (5) Series Schedule Game 1: Sat., May 5 @ Detroit, 6pm CST, TNT Game 2: Mon., May 7 @ Detroit, TBD CST, TNT Game 3: Thu., May 10 @ Chicago, 8pm CST, ESPN Game 4: Sun., May 13 @ Chicago, 2:30pm CST, ABC Game 5: Tue., May 15 @ Detroit * if needed Game 6: Thu., May 17 @ Chicago * if needed Game 7: Mon., May 21 @ Detroit * if needed (2) <font color=""Maroon"">Cleveland Cavaliers</font>vs. <font color=""DarkBlue"">New Jersey Nets</font> (6) Series Schedule Game 1: Sun., May 6 @ Cleveland, 12pm CST, ABC Game 2: Tue., May 8 @ Cleveland, 7pm CST, TNT Game 3: Sat., May 12 @ New Jersey, 4pm CST, ESPN Game 4: Mon., May 14 @ New Jersey, 7pm CST, TNT Game 5: Wed., May 16 @ Cleveland * if needed Game 6: Fri., May 18 @ New Jersey * if needed Game 7: Sun., May 20 @ Cleveland * if needed (2) <font color=""Indigo"">Phoenix Suns</font> vs. <font color=""Silver"">San Antonio Spurs</font> (3) Series Schedule Game 1: Sun., May 6 @ Phoenix, 2:30pm CST, ABC Game 2: Tue., May 8 @ Phoenix, 9:30pm CST, TNT Game 3: Sat., May 12 @ San Antonio, 7pm CST, ABC Game 4: Mon., May 14 @ San Antonio, 8:30pm CST TNT Game 5: Wed., May 16 @ Phoenix * if needed Game 6: Fri., May 18 @ San Antonio * if needed Game 7: Sun., May 20 @ Phoenix * if needed Golden State will either face Utah or Houston. * updates soon * </div>
