Bulls (+2) vs Heat. So here it is. The Bulls are down to their final bullet. I'm still pissed off about their performance in Game Five, but if the Bulls proved to be one thing over the course of the 82-game regular season, it's inconsistent. Up and down. Crazy like that. It's for this reason that I'm guessing they bounce back tonight and take care of buiness at the United Center.
Well, that and the fact that the NBA probably wants the Chicago market around for a Game Seven. Yeah, I said it.
NBA officiating is a joke nobody wants to talk about. Wait, scratch that. Everybody does talk about it. Everybody knows how heinously awful and overly influential it is, and yet, it's allowed to continue. Why? The Bulls had a 31-5 free throw advantage in Chicago in Game Four, and then in Game Five in Miami, Shaq had ten free throws less than six minutes into the game. How does this happen? Did the style of play change that drastically, that fast? Do refs just cater to the home team? What's the dealio? I'm not complaining or saying the Bulls were robbed. They weren't. They lost because they played awful. But I'm tired of NBA officiating having such a glaring influence on outcomes. I'm tired of tuning into a game and within five minutes of the opening tipoff being able to say to yourself, "Well, it's easy to see which way the refs are leaning tonight."
That's garbage. Total garbage. Let the game dictate how the calls go. Not what city the game is in or who the stars are or who had more calls go their way the last time out. Maybe, just maybe, the refs will allow tonight's game to flow without leaving their intrusive fingerprints all over it.
And maybe Kirk Hinrich can get through crunch time without committing any horrible turnovers.
Maybe Michael Sweetney can set a pick without moving his substantial weight all over the place.
Maybe Tyson Chandler can lower his roughly foul-per-minute rate. (To be fair, there was some brutally horrible calls against Chandler that went in Shaq's favor. Horrible.)
Maybe the Bulls defense can prevent Dwyane wade and his gimpy hip from going nutty again.
Maybe.
Oh, and maybe the Bulls can stick a few jumpers. That would certainly help.
Nets (+1) at Pacers. Larry Bird won't be happy.
Suns (+4.5) at Lakers. The only unfortunate aspect of this series thus far is that Raja Bell didn't remove Kobe's head from his body with that WWF-style clothesline. It probably wasn't smart to anger Kobe heading into Game Six, but I think the Suns will come through with their backs against the wall.
May record: 5-3
