Apology Plus Recap, Playoff "Preview"

OK, I’m sorry. Let’s just get that out of the way now. I know I haven’t been around for a while, and I don’t really have an excuse. Keeping up with this blog was just taking up more time than I had available. Keeping a running diary of every game and making my own highlight reel, as cool as it is, takes several hours per game. Things got busy at work, and I just didn’t have enough time. I know I let you down, and I’m sorry. There not much else I can say.

I missed a lot, so let’s recap:

For much of the season, the Bulls were sitting around 9th or 10th in the Eastern Conference, but were always within a couple games of a playoff berth. The season was up-and-down, but after the trade deadline, things started to come together. Once the “new” team spent enough time together, they started playing a lot better, and with a little help from the schedule, the Bulls finished the season strong and jumped into the playoffs. They reached as high as the 6th seed, but lost the season finale and had to settle for 7th. This turned out to be a not-so-bad thing though, which I’ll get to in a moment.

Let’s rewind to the afternoon of the last day of the regular season:

The Bulls are 41-40 (the first time they were above .500 since they started 2-1). They currently are 6th in the East, 1 game ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers, who actually hold the tiebreaker over Chicago. The 6th seeded team will meet the Orlando Magic in the first round, while the 7th seed meets the defending champion Boston Celtics. Now, everyone knows that the Celtics are banged up, and Kevin Garnett has been sidelined for essentially the last month and a half. Surely he won’t be 100% for the first round at least, which makes the Celtics a lot less scary of a team to play. Toward the end of the regular season, the Bulls beat the Celtics 127-121 with KG on the sideline. However, as of this day, KG is expected to play, and even if he’s not at 100%, I’m not confident as a Bulls fan against the defending champs, especially when they have home court advantage.

What people weren’t talking about were the Orlando Magic, who were also banged up (Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu nursed injured at the end of the regular season). The Bulls beat the Magic in the regular season when they were at full health, so if I had to choose, I’d rather play them. So, for this to happen, all I need is for the Bulls to beat the Raptors at home, or the 76ers to lose in Cleveland. Sounds easy enough, but the Raptors can be a tough team, and Cleveland just happens to be sitting all their best players to rest for the playoffs. Well, the Bulls laid an egg, and the 76ers needed OT to win by a point. There you have it – 76ers #6, and the Bulls #7. Can’t do anything about it, so let’s move on…

The next morning, news breaks that KG not only will not play in the first round of the playoffs, but he may not play in any rounds. This is shocking news, and a severe blow to the Celtics and their fans. Great news, however, for the Bulls and their fans. This doesn’t keep the Celtics from being favorites in this matchup, but it almost evens the odds for the Bulls. With a healthy KG, I’d say it’s about 99% likely that the Celtics win the series, to 1% for the Bulls. With a hobbled KG, it’s closer to 80/20, and with no KG, it’s about 60/40. The Bulls are a good home team, but a horrible road team, and I don’t expect the Bulls to win any games in Boston. At best, I’d say they can make it a 7 game series, and the chances of that are not too bad (After all, the Hawks took the Celtics to 7 games in the first round last year). But I don’t see how the Celtics lose a game 7 at home. Now, I never expected the Bulls to make it past the first round, but in this matchup, I figured they’d get in the most number of games. This year, it’s all about the experience, and the young team could use some exposure to the playoff atmosphere.