Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls
Sunday May 15, 2011

The extraordinarily hot Miami Heat led by Dwayne Wade and Lebron James head to Chicago for game one of the Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA Playoffs.  Based on seed rank and regular season win totals one would think that the Bulls are favored to win this series. But because of the Miami Heat's play as of late they are the hottest team in the league right now.

Statistically the teams matchup very well.  Both score roughly 7 points more than they allow. Both have 7 turnovers a game.  Both have roughly the same stats regarding three pointers (6) and steals (7) per game.  The Miami Heat are a better team though. Since the playoffs started they are 8-2 and won their last four regular season games as well.  The talent level is better too. Experience is everything. Bosh, Wade, Bibby, and Lebron are all experienced players at the heights of their careers, with maybe the exception of Bibby who peaked two or three years ago. 

In this first matchup the Bulls are favored by a basket (-2).  But Miami is favored in the series 2/1 (-200).  This is a rarity in professional sports. The team with the home court advantage and overall better record are 2-1 underdogs.  This happens when you have two of the top 5 players in the entire league on the same team.

In this first game we expect a very close game and Miami will probably pull off the win. But even if they don't win this first game, we still anticipate that Miami will be the first team to 4 wins.  This should be a dog fight but I wouldn't be totally surprised if Miami won the series 4 games to 2.