8. bullsger (On the road again) (Oh thank Krishna, Noah is almost back stretch) (The Last Stretch of Ugly *cleanse the palate*) (stretch of Meh) (the stretch of the Cs game and the one before it we don't care about) (Indiana 1, 2) (Indiana 5) (Heat 2) 8. Transplant (On the road again) (Oh thank Krishna, Noah is almost back stretch) (Stretch of Meh) (the stretch of the Cs game and the one before it we don't care about) (Indiana 1, 2) (Indiana 3, 4) (Indiana 5) (Heat 2) 6. Good Hope (On the road again) (Oh thank Krishna, Noah is almost back stretch) (The Last Stretch of Ugly *cleanse the palate*) (the stretch of the Cs game and the one before it we don't care about) (Indiana 1, 2) (Heat 2) 5. Such Sweet Thunder (Stretch of cupcakedness) (the stretch of the Cs game and the one before it we don't care about) (Indiana 1, 2) (Indiana 5) (Heat 2) 4. Denny (The Stretch of One) (the stretch of the Cs game and the one before it we don't care about) (Indiana 1, 2) (Indiana 5) 4. FastForward7 (Stretch of cupcakedness) (the stretch of the Cs game and the one before it we don't care about) (Indiana 1, 2) (Indiana 5) 3. Rosenthal (Stretch of Meh) (Indiana 1, 2) (Indiana 5) 2. Truebluefan (The Last Stretch of Ugly *cleanse the palate*) (Indiana 5) 2. bullshooter (Stretch of doom) (Indiana 5) 1. JayJohnstone (Indiana 5) 1. FJ (Heat 2) Pick it or you lose it: Wed, May 18 vs Miami 8:30 PM
I would rather be wrong and have the Bulls put a shellacking on the Heat like last night than be right. The Heat thought they could win with a gimmick (going small) and it failed utterly. I underestimated James and Wade and their desire to win. I don't think they have it in them. W for the Bulls Roger on the rogering thing. It has a good ring to it.
As for me, the Bulls win. I underestimated them last night. I fully expect the Heat to come out with a lot more force this second game. They were embarrassed. But I think the Bulls pull it out in a fairly tight game. It's game three where the Bulls put in the dagger. Bulls win by 5.
W for the good guys. I dont expect the heat to be lead in scoring by bosh and I expect them to play wit more desire. I still think we stop them from getting in any type of rhythm however.
I see. Then, I agree, I don't think they have it in them. But I was more of the mind that they would think they've already done the hard work by getting rid of the Celtics. I think we'll see a much better shot from them this time around. Here we need to hold the line. If we break the fragile hold the team has over its stars, we'll have it made in the shade -- Happy Days!
It looked to me like the Heat were threatening to run away from us in the first half. We were hitting 3pt shots to keep their lead under 10, and that didn't look too sustainable to me. It would have been worse for us if Wade didn't blow 2 layups and another shot or two in close with good looks. The game turned for us when LeBron got his 2nd foul and they sat him. Chambers came in and didn't show much poise, turning it over like 3 times in about 2 minutes. Miller grabbed a couple of rebounds, but they didn't stick with him. They had this odd "go small" strategy that utterly failed, but they stuck with it. Joel Anthony played awesome D and they took him out. For Magloire, who's not a very good player. The more they played him, the better we did. Our bench failed us in most of our previous playoff games, and Thibs didn't play them much. Against the like of Magloire, they got some traction. All these things are in the game film, and their coach is no slouch. They will adjust. They have the better talent and can bury us early if they have the heart. I didn't see the desire, and we kicked their asses. I think Rose got his teammates involved early and they played well all game. He got his points but wasn't the whole show. Two games in a row now, and two blowouts. I would hope he and Thibs stick with that. W for the Bulls until the Heat show otherwise.
True that. We win until the heat beat us. So far they are 0-4 and each win gets larger and larger in points disparity.
Bulls win. Not going to be a cakewalk though. But Heat can't get away from the ISO and we pull away in the 4th.
I guess game 2 was the statement game. The heat is on the Bulls now. If they lose both games in Miami, they come back down 3-1 having to win the rest of the games. The way I think of things, a 20 point win at home is like a 10 point win on the road due to the home court advantage. Their 10 point win in our house was more impressive than our 21 point win.
Odd way of looking at it, but in any case, the relative impressiveness of a win doesn't make it count for anything more than a win. Hats off to the Heat. They brought it. Haslem was huge for them and his emergence improves the Heat's chances. Not quite ready to buy a dog though.
Why is it an odd way of looking at it? Speaking of odds, the oddsmakers look at things exactly as I do and consider home court advantage when figuring out the point spreads. E.g., if the team is expected to win by 10 on a neutral court: 1) and it is at home, the point spread is adjusted by +X, or 2) and it is on the road, the point spread is adjusted by -X. http://www.wecoverspreads.com/general/2011-nba-playoffs-preview Considering the Bulls' strong record at home, +3 for home court seems on the low side. Make sense? So when a team like Indiana comes into Chicago and plays us close, it's likely they're going to be that much stronger when we face them on their court.
Here's the thing, Denny. You start with a reasonable position...the oddsmakers generally give a +3 for home court. Then you say something like Well no, it doesn't make sense to increase the Bulls' home +3 when they're playing the best road team in the league. Further, it confounds me that anyone could be so certain that it does. If, based purely on the winning margins in Chicago, the Heat's 10 point win impresses you more than the Bulls 21 point win, logic would lead me to believe that you think that the Bulls are clearly better than the Heat. We know that this is not the case. Again, I don't much care about impressiveness. This is going to be a tough series. Of course, I'm hoping that the Bulls will win it. From the first 2 games, I also believe the Bulls will win it. If they win it unimpressively, I can live with that.
The bit about best road record is interesting. So if the Heat had 0 road wins, would you still add +3? The point being that it is a matter of degree. And the +3 comes from this one oddsmaker's system using their power rankings. My own view, +10 is just as valid, using my own reckoning. Like I did predict a "statement" game by the Heat, I just got which game wrong ;-)
OK, now this is purely academic. I think the +3 home court thing is fine as a general thing. If either of us made our living setting initial lines for NBA games and our ability to buy our sons the GI Joe with the kung fu grip (sorry, couldn't resist) depended on being as accurate as possible with those initial lines, neither of us would be so lazy as to simply plug in the +3. We'd dig in and find out if it's +2 1/2 or +3 1/2 or whatever. You're reckoning is +10 and I honestly think you're nuts, but this is America dammit, and you can be nuts if you want to. You can also believe that the Heat have now taken control of this series, and in this case, you'd have most people, though maybe not most Bulls fans, agreeing with you. When you adopt a majority opinion, few will claim that you're daffy so you're on safe ground. Impressiveness and statements aside, these are two very good teams...clearly the best in the East IMO. I don't think either team has broken the other team's will in the first 2 games. It's still "game on" IMO.
