Heat vs Bulls: Massacres Expose Overrated Contenders
Simmer down the hype.
The Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls woke up on Palm Sunday as Eastern Conference favorites. Both teams, though, spent their afternoons getting slaughtered. Miami and Chicago are without a doubt championship contenders, but right now, they’re overrated.
Fans have been preaching Heat superiority since the regular season kicked off. Their 91-72 massacre at the hands of the Boston Celtics conflicts with such overconfidence. But Carolina Panthers cornerback Darius Butler’s response to the loss sums up the state of Heat Nation:
"Regular Season. RT @WivisRealTalk: @DariusButler27 thoughts on c's punching the heat in the face?
— Darius Butler (@DariusButler27) April 1, 2012"
Butler’s shrug-off of the loss is legitimate. Their latest tally in the L-column means nothing. But fans shouldn’t be comfortable.
Miami just got owned by a Ray Allen-less Celtics team. But the fact that Doc Rivers’ crew was without their starting two-guard isn’t even the main cause for concern.
Boston has no starting center—literally. Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass aren’t capable of playing the position. And despite that fact, they still manhandled the Heat.
Miami’s greatest weakness wasn’t even the cause of their collapse.
No one in their right mind is writing off the Heat after their latest loss. But at the same time, no one in their right mind is pegging them as overwhelming favorites to win the title. And the same goes for the Bulls—even though their hype-train isn’t nearly as noisy as the one down in South Beach.
Also on Sunday, Chicago was annihilated by the Oklahoma City Thunder 92-78. As ugly as that score looks for the Bulls, their performance was even more hideous. OKC held an insane 80-51 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Sure, Chicago was without their best player in Derrick Rose. But the rest of the squad’s pitiful production shows just how far they still have to go to win a ring.
A lack of offensive output around Rose is the reason the Bulls failed to advance to the Finals last season. And against the Thunder, that problem didn’t look to be solved. Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng—supposedly Chi-Town’s top-two scoring options behind Rose—combined for an embarrassing 16 points in the contest.
Chicago and Miami’s body of work this regular season deserves hype. But neither team has done enough to justify their current status as Finals favorites head-and-shoulders above the rest.
David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.
