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Bulls 97, Celtics 81: Meet Me In Orlandoby Ricky O'Donnell on April 8, 2011 at 12:09AM
 I can't pinpoint the exact moment -- or at least I haven't thought about it hard enough yet to figure it out - but at some point this season, the Bulls, and all of their raucous success, stopped feeling like a pleasant surprise. Yes, this is my major epiphany just an hour or so after the Bulls handily dismantled the conference's reigning champion and bully: this should feel like *something* -- something triumphant -- but instead it feels like just another win. And because the Bulls win practically every game they play, the major bruising Chicago delivered at the United Center last night has me searching for something more. Something that can't come for almost another month, when the second round of the playoffs begin. Yep, the Bulls have done the borderline unthinkable in Tom Thibodeau's first season: they have won so easily and so often that they have made the regular season feel unimportant. I would have never guessed it would be this way. This season -- even when viewed through Derrick Rose colored glasses -- was supposed to be about building towards something grand; instead, they've skipped paying their dues and transported straight to the elite. The Bulls are already too good for this too long regular season. They are 58-20 with five games left and I am bored. We get it: they are really good at this regular season shit. Wake me when they sweep the Pacers. If this reads as spoiled, even bratty, I suppose I'm guilty as charged. Somewhere along the way, however, this team stopped being cute and started getting serious. Silver linings exist only to get the depressed masses from day-to-day without jumping. We passed that bridge a while back. Now, satisfaction will come only out of something concrete: playoff advancement, and -- let's be real -- the eventual toppling of Miami or Boston. That's where we're at. You'll be told that this season is a rousing success regardless: what with Rose turning into the MVP, Thibs landsliding his way to Coach of the Year out of the gates, and the best damn regular season record in the conference. Time passes, expectations adjust. I want LeBron's head on a stick now, and anything less constitutes an opportunity lost. I'm just anxious, that's all. Excited. Nervous. Everything. This team -- every single ounce of it -- is such a joy. And I know too that seasons like these don't come very often. In my lifetime, I can count the years my favorite teams have been *this* good on a single hand -- yeah, The MJ's excluded, if only because the man himself is bigger than it all. The point: I want a fucking banner. Silver linings? Sure, pulverize the Heat and a small part of me could get talked into everything being OK if they somehow lost in the Finals. Regardless, it's tunnel vision time. Nothing else matters besides for the end-of-season prize. We're just so far past pre-season expectations right now. I thought the Bulls would have to get a great deal of luck to win 50; instead, they'll win 60+ even without their complete starting front-court for the vast majority of the regular season. They aren't good; they're great. They aren't championship hopefuls, or even merely a contender: the Bulls are the favorites, at least in their conference. Learning-to-fly narratives be damned. I am ready for the playoffs. I've never been more ready. Friends and long-time readers know that I like to get in the prediction business from time to time -- even if those told-ya-so bragging rights don't mean as much as you get further away from your high school cafeteria. I have no predictions for these Bulls, though. I'm not even going to think about it. All I know is that I love them, and that these playoffs are going to be a wild fucking ride. Now let's get on with it, because when even a 16-point curb stomping of the C's feels hollow, you know it's time for bigger and better things. For the latest NBA odds on all of the Bulls playoff games check out betfirms.com. |
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Couldnt have said it better myself Rick. I wonder how Cowherd feels about Rose v. Rondo when Your Friendly Neighborhood MVP dropped 30 and 8 his boy. And he did it in spectacular fashion, with the crowd "oooh" and "ahh"-ing every crossover. Bring on the 2nd season, please....
Love NBA
Not to toss cold water on this Hot Tub Spa Party, but other than the Bulls, there really isn't a team in the East that impresses me.
I too thought that this would be a long hard slog, that the Bulls would be fortunate to win 50 games, and perhaps snag the third or forth seed. Home court throughout the conference playoffs was a pipe dream, and the best case scenarios in my mind involved other teams dispatching the Heat or the Celtics, or having them beat each other to death. I also foolishly thought that with Melo on the roster, the Knicks would be a dangerous playoff opponent. Turns out that Denver is more of a team to worry about, after having gotten rid of his one dimensional ass.
So I'll be sorely disappointed if the Bulls don't make it to the finals, which is something I never would have said a few months ago. And right now, I'd much prefer that the road they take west travels through Miami. I don't see the Heat hanging with the Bulls through seven games. It won't be a sweep, but IMHO Miami just doesn't match up, and against Chicago they'd be seriously out-coached. Bosh is a joke, and James isn't much of a finisher. They're too small, don't have a point guard, and their bench sucks.
The East is there for the taking.
It must really suck to be Ben Gordon right about now.
Bulls are a bunch of sallies that that'll choke just like last year.
Rondo is just gettin' warmed up. Have a nice day alice.
Is this satire or delirium?
Sounds more like sour grapes to me. Rondo is over-rated and past his prime, Garnett is a punk, and Shaq is ancient history. Any chance that team had of winning rode out of town in Perkins' jock.
Past his prime?!
Rondo's prime was when he was in high school. He's got a ton of miles on him already, and he's lookin' old and slow.
Fuck Rondo, and the Big Baby he rode in on!
You seriously better take this back before Kurt Thomas turns you into a pillar of salt. Big Sexy doesn't take too kindly to being called a sally.
I really don't appreciate that statement. I'll eat Rondo's fucking children you cocksucker.
"All I know is that I love them..."
Awwww Ricky's in love! You deserve this. I'm happy for you :)
I'd like to see a Bobby Jenks poster ala George Bush:
"Miss me yet?"
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