3:05 AM
Shifty Jeans
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| Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images |
The Chicago Bulls are NBA's hottest team, and with Derrick Rose manning the point, with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, I'd consider them the team to beat in the East.
They're a remarkable 35-5 at home and since February 17th, they've beaten the Spurs, Heat, Hawks and Celtics at the United Center.
Not to bad.
However, in their last meeting with the Pacers inside Conseco Fieldhouse, the Bulls lost in overtime, 113-108 even with Rose scoring a game high 42 points. Still, I'm not sure that game indicates what we'll see in the first-round between these two teams.
Schedule
Here's the playoff schedule for the Bulls and Pacers first round matchup:
Pacers at Bulls - 1pm Saturday, April 16th. (TV, ESPN)
(will update when full schedule is released)
Prediction
The Pacers are seven games under .500 but have pieced together some quality wins throughout the course of the year. Danny Granger is an underrated scorer and Darren Collison has remained the pesky point guard he was at UCLA, who can get the job done when you'd least expect him to. Don't sleep on bigs Roy Hibbert and Tyler Hansbrough who have come into their own down the stretch.
The Bulls, in the end, are the far more talented club. Rose will probably win the league MVP and has done an outstanding job making the role players around him much better. Joakim Noah, if his ankle isn't injured badly, could have a big series. The same goes for Luol Deng on the wing and Carlos Boozer down low.
They'll get past the Pacers but can they represent the East in the NBA Finals?
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