How the Miami Heat Beat the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Playoffs

The Chicago Bulls were supposed to a simple roadblock in the way of the Miami Heat advancing to the second round of the playoffs. In fact most people thought that the Bulls would get swept. Instead the Bulls put up a great fight and worried the Heat once the Bulls won two games.

The Chicago Bulls made the playoffs based on the dominating play of Ben Gordon who the Bulls have coming off of the bench but he should really be starting in their lineup. Gordon is emerging in the NBA as a great player who can hit the big shot with the game on the line. Gordon has the quickness to drive to the basket as well as hit the mid range jump shot. In addition he plays very good defense. The Bulls also got great play out of their point guard Kirk Heinrich who has shown that he is ready for the NBA. Heinrich gets his teammates involved in the game with his passing skills and can hit the 3 point shot on a consistent basis. The Bulls in the palyoffs also got good production out of Tyson Chandler who plays good defense and is a great rebounder. He often is inconsistent in his scoring production but in the playoffs he had good success in the post against Miami Heat power forward Udonis Haslem.

The Miami Heat did not play up to their full potential which is why the Bulls won two games in the series. Still the Heat looked dominating at other times led by Shaquille O'neil who is the best center in the league and Dwayne Wade who seems to keep getting better each year. He can fly to the basket and has Sportcenter highlight reel dunks. At times no one in the league can guard him and when he and Shaq are palying well, no one can beat the Heat.

The Heat are coached by Pat Riley which is set on bringing a championship to Miami. He personally has assembled the team to win a championship as he brought in veterans Gary Payton, Antoine Walker and Jason Williams to advance the Heat past the Pistons which they failed to do last year.

In this series the Heat also held homecourt advantage and that helped them greatly as the Heat are almost unbeatable at home.