I'm a little worried about facing these Bulls. Mostly, however, I am very excited to see what looks to be an unforgetable series. Created in the image of the 2004 Pistons, the Bulls are young, fast and athletic. They play a perimeter oriented game that relies on solid execution of their plays. They play Defense. They are hungry. They are often underestimated. They have the often underestimated 4 time DPOY that is familiar with the Pistons strategy, and has practiced against some of their key players. They kicked the Pistons butts 3 out of 4 times they met this year. If it ain't rough, it ain't right. Pistons in 6.
Yeah, I agree. Maybe 4-1. Wade wasn't 100%, but it's not like he was anywhere near as low as, say, 50%. Low was arguing with me in chat yesterday about how the Pistons would have swept the '89 Finals even if Magic and Byron hadn't been hurt. I say to that...but the Bad Boys still would have brought home the ship in 6.
Considered starting a thread on the end of the Heat's run (brief as it was)... if you look at their salary commitments it doesn't look good for them... Shaq & Walker are locked up thru 09/10... They don't have an early draft pick... and they have untradable players... unless you want a complimentary player like Haslem or Fatoine. DWade is in for a long painful career in Miami.
No I don't think the Pistons would have swept it either. I am thinking six too. Do you recall if they split the season series that year (88-89) or did either of them sweep that? I was here in LA then but the only games I went to was games 1, 2 and 6 of the finals in 1988 and don't remember what happen during the 88-89 season matchups. I do recall the Pistons holding the Lakers to 0 points in a regular season OT game at the Forum, but don't recall if it was in 88, 89, 90 or 91.
well...well...well.........HERE WE go!! The Return of the Bong!!! .... as you can see in my illustration, the conflict is immense. HQ tips his hat in respect until he is confronted by the evil Sith Lord, Darth Bong. The evil is surfaced by the fear and anger of my loss of Lord 3 to the enemy Bulls until I transform to Darth Q(aka Lord Silliness). My heart will be on my sleeve the next two weeks and there is not enough alchohol in Carolina to get me through this series! May the Force enbalm me.
I know that the Pistons won both regular season games against the Lakers in '88-'89, but I don't remember when that 0-pt OT game might have been.
Da - amn. About the six minute mark of the fourth the Bulls just took their heart. Course the Heat will claim all sorts of extenuating circumstances. And I just don't care. 36 minutes 13 points 11 boards 3-6 and 7-8 All right, I need to stop this. It's just making me annoyed all over again about the ECF last year.
The TNT crew just unveiled the "Gone Fishing" picture for the Heat, with Kenny, Shaq, and Wade holding onto a big swordfish on the front of the boat. Crockett and Tubbs were in the background on the boat, along with Tony Montana, and Fidel Castro was floating in the water.
I personally blame Ben Wallace for losing the Heat series last season. Anyway, you can't mail in the reg-season like the Heat did and expect to do well in the post-season. May get lucky like they did last year but its not going to sustain a prolonged run. I know they had a lot of injuries but something was missing. They spent half the season playing without Shaq and the other half without Wade. Maybe it got to the point where the other guys did not know what their rolls were anymore.
I really enjoyed watching the hack-a-Ben strategy lose the game for Miami. Now, since Miami has all the same pieces as last year, and got swept out of the first round, can we officially call them a fluke? OK, It's settled then. It was all a big fluke last year. Ha. I wonder if D Wade will EVER win another title. My guess is no.
They were within 5 with about 2:30 to go when they started that. Well within range to pull it out. It worked for them last year, this time it put them down by 9 very quickly. Riley did not even give his guys a chance to win the game with that.
What a totally humiliating way for the defending NBA champs to go out. Blown out like the Magic. I love it.
I would have liked Miami to win a game or two, but now that they are out, whew, what a relief. They played so poorly, they were so overmatched. How can anyone consider them anything more than paper champions after they won 4 straight on friendly whistles last June, and then folded this season like a cheap lawnchair? The Bulls are a very good defensive team, but they are far from dominant. Several times Miami was close enough to make a move, but they couldn't hit FTs, couldn't get stops and couldn't make plays with anyone besides Dwyane Wade. Why would anyone want to bring Shaq back next season? He looks horrible. His career is in a decaying orbit.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Miami had conquered all when everyone said the odds were stacked against them a year ago. That magic would repeat itself. It had to. The Heat was not going to become the first champion in 50 years to get swept out of the first round the following postseason. Pat Riley knew winning four straight after going down 0-3 had never happened in the history of the league, but he optimistically felt that was bound to change. ROFL! Chicago Bulls, Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, National Basketball Association, Miami Heat - CBS SportsLine.com [/FONT]
