Cavaliers vs Bulls Round 2
Kelly Olynyk could turn out to become the most important player in this season NBA play-offs. In the moment of madness he managed to pull out Kevin Love`s left shoulder (out 4-6 months) and the Cavs fans could almost see their title hopes vanishing to thin air. It is difficult to imagine the Cavaliers being able to win a play-off series against anyone who tops the West (probably GSW), but it is likely even worse than that as we think that the Cavs wont even get to the Finals.
The importance of Kevin Love has been seriously underestimated by the series odds. The fact is that Love is a key piece in the Cavaliers lineup that helps to spread the floor at the offensive end, thus creating driving to the basket chances to both Lebron and Irving, but also gives a flexibility to the Cavaliers defense to rotate the players. Take those two important things away and the Cavaliers will have to heavily rely on jump shots and will have problems at the defensive end to find players who could guard opponents big lineups. The Bulls in that sense is the worse possible matchup for the Cavaliers. They are an excellent team in one-on-one defense and contesting all the jump-shots and they are also well-coached and smart enough to exploit all the mismatches they get at the offensive end. To make the matters worse – the Cavaliers wont have their best shotmaker J.R. Smith available for first 2 home games (suspension).
The Bulls are finally after so many years close to being fully healthy during the play-offs. Derrick Rose showed flashes of his brilliance during the first round and although the Bulls had couple of hick ups in games 4 and 5, they did perform at an excellent level in game 6 winning it by a 54 (!!!) point margin. So the Bulls are fine and can smell their best chance to beat Lebron`s team over recent years. The regular season series between this teams finished 3-1 for the Cavaliers. Telling fact – only win the Bulls got was when the Cavaliers played without Kevin Love.
Because of Love`s season ending injury and J.R. Smith`s suspension for first two games, we think this series is with both teams having equal chances to advance. Yes, the Cavaliers still have the home court advantage, but as they will have to play first 2 games without 2 of their starters, the Bulls are very likely to win at least one of them. Another important thing is that the Cavaliers just can not have any other injury (even if it is role player). Next ankle sprain almost makes it impossible to advance. As surprising as it is to say that – the Bulls are much deeper in that sense. You can never underestimate the genius of Lebron James, but we think that matchup problems, injuries and the Bulls recent surge will cause a lot of problems for the Cavaliers and the Bulls are able to take advantage of it. Take Chicago to win the series @3.01 from Pinnacle with 3/5 units.
GL