| 15 April 2011
What a season.
What a season to not have been blogging as much as I wanted to. Of all seasons.
Props to Horns to the Hardwood for covering Bulls basketball here at Bloguin while my life got kind of crazy.
But we're here now. And by here, I mean HERE.
I was thinking about the '08 playoffs and the Celtics series. Even then, I knew we were close. We were a coach and a free agency class away.
The Bulls are now the best team in the league. It's weird to actually type that. The best team in the entire league.
Well, record-wise at least. And maybe in reality, they ARE the best team in the league. We're obviously about to find out.
This is going to sound crazy, but for me, this is not fun. The first round of the playoffs. The second round of the playoffs. Just not fun. Because at this point, expectations are so high that if we do not at least make it to the Eastern Conference finals, this city will be fairly heartbroken. At least I know I will be. That's why it's hard for me to emotionally invest myself in the Pacers series. If I care too much about it...as in completely revolve my schedule around it as I would the Eastern Conference finals...and then, say, they lose...I would be crushed. That's why I'm going to be non-chalant about it and not go too crazy watching these games and just hope they take care of business like they should.
That's just my Chicago fan mentality. You can never believe you are as good as you actually are. That, and watching Tyler Hansbrough tear the Bulls a new one still eats away at my brain. That's why I think I'm uneasy. I do think the Bulls will win this series, but we're in for such a long struggle before we get to where we want to be this post-season, I don't think people realize that.
And the truth is, Danny Granger is right. As Derrick Rose goes, the Bulls go. Yes, I know we're a deep team. Probably the deepest in the league. And I'm confident the Bench Mob is dangerous enough and can hold their own, but the playoffs are just a different animal. Teams play harder and untested teams get shook. Luckily, while the Bulls are untested, I think they are all just mature enough where their legs won't fall out from under them when things stop going their way for stretches.
We need Boozer and Noah to play like men. Why? Because Roy Hibbert is a boy in a man's body. He's soft. If Noah and Boozer can dominate him from the start, this series will be over before it even started. Obviously, Deng and Brewer and Watson and Omer and Kurt Thomas and Korver all need to play their respective parts and do what they've been doing all year. This team is a well-oiled machine. That's the best way of putting it. It's like a car engine. Derrick Rose is the motor. And I guess that would make Noah the alternator and Boozer the radiator. Either way, Derrick makes the rest of the moving parts work. Without him, there is no engine. And considering there is no shot-blocker on the Pacers and Collison can't guard him if his life depended on it, I think he'll do just fine this series.
Let's all pray for this team to avoid injuries, because they're all a little fragile right now. So like I said, we're here and we're 18 hours away from tip off. Time to do some work. And since it's playoff time, and I'm going to be a lot more pissed and there's going to be a ton to write it about...I can promise you A LOT OF POSTS...so stay tuned.
