Bulls End Up With 7th Seed, Face Boston In Playoffs
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Apr 16, 2009 1:45PM
Heading into Wednesday night's action, the Bulls looked to have a lock on the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. A Bulls win or a loss by the Philadelphia 76ers and a series with Orlando Magic was on the horizon. The Bulls were wrapping up their regular season at home -- where they'd won 15 of 17 at the United Center since February -- against the lottery-bound Toronto Raptors. And the reeling 76ers -- losers of six straight -- were facing off against the East's top seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. We hear that Joakim Noah already had his mouse ears packed!
So much for a sure thing...
The Bulls came out flat against the Raptors, falling down by 20 early on before losing 109-98. Cleveland, in spite of playing to tie for the all-time best home record of 40-1, chose to sit four of its starters ahead of the playoffs against Philly. The Cavs sent the game into overtime before losing 111-110. With their win, the 76ers and the Bulls both finished their seasons 41-41, but Philadelphia lands the sixth seed based on a better conference record.
With the seventh seed, the Bulls now face the second seeded Boston Celtics. The series tips off in Boston on Saturday. The defending NBA champs finished their season 62-20. Head-to-head, the Celtics won two of three meetings this season.
Do the Bulls have any shot? Maybe to win a game in the best-of-seven series. Boston's a much better team, looking to defend its title, and hold home court advantage. The Celtics "big three" of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen outmatch their Bulls counterparts by large margins. We especially fear Pierce facing off against John Salmons, who's been hobbled by a groin injury for the past couple weeks. Garnett's not 100% either, but we see him having little trouble with Tyrus Thomas. We predict Boston wins the series in five games. A short playoff run for the Bulls, but at least it'll give rookie Derrick Rose a little taste of the post season.
UPDATE: It looks like KG isn't going to be ready to return for the start of the Bulls-Celtics series due to his bad knee, and it's possible Garnett could miss the entire post season. Does that change give the Bulls any shot at actually winning this series? At the very least, it'll be much more interesting.
Round 1 Schedule:
Game 1 - Sat. April 18, Chicago at Boston, 12:30 p.m., ESPN
Game 2 - Mon. April 20, Chicago at Boston, 7 p.m., TNT
Game 3 - Thu. April 23, Boston at Chicago, 8 p.m., TNT
Game 4 - Sun. April 26, Boston at Chicago, 1 p.m., ABC
Game 5 * Tue. April 28, Chicago at Boston, Time TBD
Game 6 * Thu. April 30, Boston at Chicago, Time TBD
Game 7 * Sat. May 2, Chicago at Boston, Time TBD, TNT