The Bulls are currently in the #5 slot for the playoffs and the only other realistic position looks like the #2 if they overtake Cleveland.

Right now the #5 will play the Southeast Division winner (Washington/Miami) while the #2 plays the #7 (New Jersey/Orlando).

Who would you guys rather see the Bulls play?

Obviously the #2 would have home court advantage where the Bulls have dominated, but as of right now they are #5.

So the second question is, if they stay at #5, would you rather go to Washington or Miami?

Unless I misunderstand something. They changed around the rules this season so the team with the better record gets homefield regardless of seeding.

I don't want any part of the Magic, I want the Heat. I think they would be our easiest opponent because there old and overated.

They're also hot right now, beat us by 30 earlier this month, and suposedly Wade is going to start practicing soon.

Give me the Wizards. They don't play any defense at all and if you can slow down Arenas (or just let him shoot them out of the game, he'll probably do that twice if it goes 7) their offense takes a huge blow.

Celtics just stuck it to the Cavs. Bulls are only 1/2 back of the 2 seed.

If only Gordon could make his shot...

Anyway...much better job bouncing back on the backtoback by the Bulls than by the Cavs.

I think we should use this thread as a playoff opponent general thread, btw.

And I don't want to see either the Heat or the Raptors, because both scare me. Especially if D-Wade can come back. I wouldn't mind Washington, and I especially wouldn't mind the 2 seed.

caron butler just broke his hand, so i would say we arent gonna see washington if we're the 5 seed, either miami or toronto

after Garbojosa and Bargnani went down, I'm not nearly as worried about the Raptors. I'm terrified of Miami however. Last thing I want to face in the playoffs is a Riley coached team.

give me the magic or whoever is in the seven seed. you have to think about it for the long haul as well. if you are the two seed, you stay away from detroit and the cavs until the eastern conference finals. If you are the five seed, even if you win you got the pistons waiting for you.

However, if we do end up with the five seed ill take the teams in this order 1. wizards, if they dont have butler i would gladly take this team. 2. raptors-another banged up team but i dont like bosh. 3. Heat-they are hot and wade practiced today. i know he wont be the same but still dont like him out there. If we do play the heat, i would like to play them in a later round after that senior citizen team is ready to break down.

One good thing...if Nocioni comes back healthy soon...the Bulls seem like they'll be getting healthy and better (thanks to TT&T) just at the same time that a lot of other teams are getting banged up.

Whoever that goes into the season with the least confidence is who I want. But I'd stay away from the Nets because there three big guards will kill us and they always have. I wouldn't want the Magic but I think it'd be easier dealing with 1 solid frontcourt player rather than 3 big guards.

With no Caron Butler and with home court I'll take my chances against the Wizards.

I'll save a matchup against the Heat for a later round.

It looks like the Bulls will not be able to catch the Pistons even after last night's sweet victory. However, they are in position to take over the #2 slot from the Cavs since they own both tiebreakers vs the Cavs.

Here are the remaining schedules:

Bulls- 6 games remaining (0 back to backs):
vs NJ 35-39
at TOR 42-33
vs NY 31-43
vs CHA 30-46
at WAS 39-35
at NJ 35-39

Cavs- 7 games remaining (2 back to backs):
vs MIA 40-34
at WAS 39-35
at DET 48-27
vs NJ 35-39
vs ATL 27-48
at PHI 30-44
vs MIL 26-48

I would say the worst the Bulls will do in that stretch is 3-3, and they can definitely win all 6.

For Cleveland, these next 3 games are huge. They actually play 3 games in 4 days, in three different states. Also, since Sunday's game vs the Pistons is a day game, they will actually play 3 games in about 65 hours including travel.

I'd be incredibly disappointed if the Bulls don't make up 0.5 games on the Cavaliers from here on out.

No Arenas, no Butler... whoever faces the Wizards in the first round is real lucky.

Hey Stevo, nice picture of Tyrus. Although he should have popped Rip when he took his mask off.

As for the no Arenas, Butler situation I could only hope the Bulls somehow end up playing the Wizards in the first round. Maybe the Wizards will make a big fall to number 7. It's not likely but if they lose almost all of their games without Gilbert it is definately possible.

Without Gilbert/Butler, the Wizards just might not win another game... As for your point on Tyrus, I'm glad he didn't "pop" Rip, because we don't need him suspended for 15 games!

Looks like the Raptors will probably hit the playoff lottery and face the wiz. I dont think NJ will make up four games with seven/eight left. But if the Bulls manage to catch the Cavs, that would probably mean the Heat, the Cavs, and the Pistons would all be on the same side of the playoff bracket. I wouldnt mind a trip of NJ and then the Raptors to the Eastern Conference Finals!! Lets catch those Cavs!!!

I love the way you think.... we HAVE to catch the Cavs.

The Cavs are playing Miami on TNT right now

And so far, Shaq is his dominant self...

Lookin' good early!

Heat are up 7 to start the second half

Heat up 13 to start the 4th.

Ova-time!

We ARE the #2 seed! Woooooooooooooo! That was torturous!

Lets hold the 2 seed. That would be such an easier path for us!!!! You knew Lebron was gonna miss that shot at the end of regulation

We just took 2nd Place!!!! Thats what Im talkin about!!!!
Cavs play the Wizards without Arenas or Butler tomorrow and we got the Nets. We need a convincing Bulls win and a solid Cavs loss to give us some breathing space. Hopefully this OT wore them out a little and Antwan Jamison has a big game!

Im pretty confident Cleveland is gonna win that game. I dont think weve beaten new Jersey all year. this would be a good time to start.

I'm pretty confident they won't. I really think that the Wizards are going to try and prove they still have some ballers on that team. Antonio Daniels, Stevenson & Jamison will step up big and give the Bulls some breathing room. (That's if the Bulls take care of business).

After comparing the remaining schedules of both teams its going to be a tight race.
Heres my predictions -

Cavs Remaining Games

6th Washington - W
8th Detroit - L
12th New Jersey (Home) - L
14th Atlanta (Home) - W
17th Philadelphia - W
18th Milwaukee (Home)- W
4 Wins - Cavs Final Record - 49-31

Bulls Remaining Games

6th New Jersey - W
8th Toronto - W
10th New York - W
13th Charlotte - W
15th Washington - W
18th New Jersey - L

5 Wins - Bulls Final Record - 50-31
= Bulls hold onto Number 2 Seed

It would be great time to start considering right now they are our playoff matchup!!

Now the Bulls only have to match the Cavs the rest of the way. I figure 4 wins will be enough to at least tie them. I don't see the Cavs winning 5 of 6. So if the Bulls can go 4-2 and at least tie the Cavs, the 2nd seed is ours.

So the 1st round matchup for the #2 seed is going to be NJ or ORL. The #5 seed will get MIA or TOR. The #2 seed is critical, because the 2nd round matchup would be vs the 3-6 winner, and not Detroit.

The Wizards play the Cavs tonight, and then follow that up with 2 games against the Nets. Right now the Wiz have a 4 game lead on the Nets...but with a pair of games together, and no Caron Butler or Arenas...the Wizards could conceivably drop all the way to 7th. A win tonight for the Wiz would be huge.

I'm sure the NBA is hoping the Bulls get a 5 seed and heat 3 and cavs 2.

That way their Eastern semifinals would be Pistons -Bulls and Cavs-Heat. their ratings would be better this way. then they'd hope they Pistons beat the Bulls and then they'd strike gold no matter what. Pistons-heat rematch or they could have lebron finally making noise in the playoffs.

Man would I love to see the Wiz in the first round. it takes a perfect storm of events for that to happen though.

If it falls the other way...Bulls/Heat and Pistons/Cavs both are repeats of series we saw last year as well...1 of them went 6 and 1 went 7. I think the NBA wouldn't mind that at all either.

yeah, that makes sense too. but you know what the best matchup would be?

da bulls taking on someone in the west.

If Chicago can hold on to this #2 seed it becomes very possible that they make it to the Eastern Conference finals.

From what it's looking like right now, we would play New Jersey in the first round and then probably Toronto in the second round. Both those series are very winnable for the Bulls, especially because they match up well with the Nets and have beaten Toronto twice this season.

Folks, this season is turning out to be amazing. Something crazy could happen this year for Chicago.

Not only that but they'd have home court in both playoff series. If Miami "upsets" Detroit (which really isn't an upset since Miami is better) then we'd have home court in the East finals as well. Talk about wetting your pants.

Honestly, I think the Bulls can beat anyone in the East with the team they have now, but in a 7 game series, the Raptors scare the hell out of me. They're the only team I can really see beating us in a series.

If we could avoid Toronto and/or Miami, we should do well in the playoffs.

Best case scenario: We win the 2 seed, Washington falls to the 7th seed. We beat Washington, and hope the Nets upset the Raptors, then we face the Nets in the 2nd round.

Washington have back to back games of Orlando in Washington and Indiana on the road. Depending on how bad the Pacers want a draft pick this will most probably end up in a loss and a win. If a miracle happens though and the Pacers decide to get the win we'll be in business. Then the Nets would have to beat New York and us in their final game to leapfrog the Wiz.
Heres an open question to everyone .....

Do you think Skiles is the type to strategically throw a game while we're chasing 50 wins for better playoff positioning?

The way I see it we can beat any given team if we play to the best of our ability and we've shown we can do it through out the year with moments of brilliance here and there. Home court advantage will also be in our favor and thus far we're a force to be reckoned with inside the UC. My heart wants to give a strong showing in our last game against the Nets in case we play them in the first round but my mind says to rest our starters for most of it in case they get hurt. Either way this is a great time to be a Bulls fan when instead of "Will we make the playoffs?" we're sitting here discussing who we can beat in a given series.

At this point, I think the East is really up for grabs and although it won't be easy this team has shown the type of ability that is needed to make a great run and possibly take the East. There's a few teams who might give us some headaches, Toronto and Orlando are ones that have caused some problems with us this year and despite our last game against them the Nets aren't a cakewalk either if Carter and Kidd get hot. But witnessing the hustle and ever developing ability of our team as a whole i feel that we've come together when it really counts. Our nice run during the homestretch of this year should help us be a confident playoff team.
When you look at the NBA level these players are talented and many already have the physical gifts. The playoffs is a test of both physical and mental ability to perform under pressure. I think that Skiles despite his flaws has shown these kids that they can win with him and as a result they believe in themselves and for this reason we'll see some postseason success this year. He's a great X and O guy coming out of timeouts and this will be something that will give us an advantage in a tight game. Plus Tyrus' high flying act adds a new dimension to the offense for inbounds plays. The depth of our bench with Noc, Du, Thabo and Tyrus backing up our starters will be a huge boost as fatigue adds up. Gotta love our chances!!!

It is not possible yet, because if the Bulls lose and the Cavs win their last 2, they are the #2 seed. So a win vs NJ is huge, one for the #2 seed and for the 50 wins plateau.

Also, there are 3 teams that can get the #7 seed, WAS, NJ, and ORL. If Orlando wins their last 2, and NJ loses their last 2, we play ORL. It looks like everything will be really clear after Tuesday.

I say go for the win, and not worry about what the other teams do, it is out of your control.

I hadn't done the math but the way I heard it reported yesterday we had already secured the 2nd seed. I had to work during the game so I watched a replay later and the commentators actually said "with a win here Chicago guarantees themselve the second seed". If thats bogus and we need this win to lock it all up then its a no-brainer and my question doesn't matter. I thought we were dealing from a position of having locked up 2nd seed and had the ability to rest our starters for the last game and possibly dump one for a better playoff scenario. Even in that position I would choose going for the win because its the right way to end the season in my book. I was just curious as to what Skiles would do and if people on this board felt he would lean one way or the other based on what weve seen of his character to this point.

We have not locked up the 2 seed as of yet. Right now we are 1/2 game ahead of the Cavs. We hold the tie-breaker so if we both finish with the same record we will get the two seed. But if the Cavs win their final two (at Phi and vs. Mil) and we lose to the Nets, they will get the two seed since they will have 50 wins and we will have 49. It looks like the Cavs will most likely win those two games so we need to be sure and beat the nets in our final game. Lets get it down Bulls!

NJ beat the Knicks tonight so they are within a half game of the Wizards for the 6th seed. If the Wizards lose out (vs Orlando and @ Indiana back to back) they will fall to the 7 seed no matter what the Nets do against the Bulls since the Nets own the tiebreaker.

Who owns the tiebreaker between the Wizards & Magic should both teams finish tied for 7th? Also what if there is a 3 team tie with NJ included? It's very possible.

Here are the rules

TWO-WAY TIES

1. Results of games against each other.

2. Better winning percentage within own division (only if tied teams are in same division).

3. Better winning percentage against teams in own conference.

4. Better winning percentage against playoff opponents in own conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).

5. Better winning percentage against playoff opponents in opposite conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).

6. Better point differential between offense and defense.

MORE THAN TWO TEAMS TIED

1. If applicable, division champions must be determined first.

2. Better winning percentage in all games among the tied teams.

3. Better winning percentage against teams in own division (only if all tied teams are in same division).

4. Better winning percentage against teams in own conference.

5. Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own conference (including team that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).

6. Best point differential between offense and defense.

Note: If a multiple team tie is reduced to a two-team tie at any point using the above criteria, the two-team tie will be resolved in accordance with the existing two-team tie procedure.


I was looking at the standings and was scared that the Bulls might have to face Orlando so I decided to look into it. However, if there is a 3 team tie, NJ would get the best seed b/c they have a 6-2 combined record against Orl & Was. Washington has a 2-6 record and Orlando has a 4-4 record. However, once NJ is removed, it goes to the 2 team criteria above.

Whats really crazy is that both teams will have beat each other twice. Both will have the same conference (26-26) and division records (8-8) if Orlando wins tomorrow and Washington loses.

It then comes down to better record against playoff opponents. I didn't have that calculated but obviously Washington is in a hole starting at 2-6 vs Orlando at 4-4.

Okay, so hold you breath. Damn it. We'd be playing Orlando if we secure the second seed and if there is a 3 way tie or a 2 way tie involving them and Washington. Washingtons record against playoff teams from the east is a pathetic 8-18 (Arenas being injured didn't help) and Orlando's is 11-13 of which they are 2-1 vs the Bulls.

Orlando is one of the few teams I really don't want the Bulls to play. The Bulls struggle to match up against Howard and the Magic in general. Let's all pray for a Magic loss tomorrow against Miami b/c I don't want this scenario becoming a reality.

Okay so I screwed up and did all that calculating for nothing. The outcome is still the same, but the Magic would win with a better division record 9-7 vs Washington's 8-8. Either way, the outcome is the same. The Bulls would be playing Orlando.

At least it's nice to know how the teams have fared against playoff competition this season.

Once again, pray the Wizards win.

If there happens to be a 3-way tie (meaning the Nets lose, the Wizards lose, and Orlando wins) for the 6th, 7th, and 8th seeds, Orlando would get the 7th and would play the Bulls.

So assuming the Cavs beat Milwaukee, the Bulls need NJ, WAS, and ORL to all lose in order to face the Wizards in round 1.

Tonight's games will be vital: Bulls vs Nets, Cavs vs Bucks, Wizards vs Pacers, and the Heat vs Magic.

So, to break it down a bit further:

If the Nets, Wizards, and Magic all lose...then Bulls #2, Magic #8, Nets #6, Wizards #7.

If the Nets, Wizards. and Magic all win...then Magic #8, Nets #6, Wizards #7. BUT, that would mean the Bulls lost, so we'd have to hope Cleveland loses it's game so the Bulls could retain the 2 seed.

So obviously, in any scenario in which the Nets win, the Bulls would need the Cavs to lose to hold the 2 seed.

All you need to know right here: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=As5Y...o&type=lgns

Meh.

We'll beat anyone who tries to do battle with us in that first round.

4 game sweep lucky... they'd need 'Twan 'Twan to go for 48 EVERY NIGHT to stand a chance of getting a single win, though as Eddog knows, I'm a big fan of Antonio Daniels.