Chicago’s resilient

By Majesh Abraham

Bring out the brooms, Bulls fans, because the not-so-baby Bulls just swept the defending champs out of the playoffs.

Not even the most ardent Chicago fan could have seen this coming before the playoffs started. The Bulls had finished their season on a sour note, losing their last game, the No. 2 seed and the easy path to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Bulls had to face off against the Miami Heat, the defending champs, who boast the most dominant big man in the game, Shaquille O’Neal, and the most clutch player in the game, Dwyane Wade.

The Bulls definitely had a chance to win the series; they had taken the season series against the Heat, 3-1, and this year, unlike last year, the Bulls had homecourt advantage.

Even though the Heat had struggled through the regular season, it was expected that they would step it up a notch in the playoffs, as they had done last year on the way to the NBA Championship.

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But instead of Wade and Shaq, it was the young Bulls who stole the limelight in this series. The only player to play like a superstar all series was Luol Deng, the humble 22-year-old from Sudan. What makes Deng so dangerous is that, like Wade, he has mastered the lost art of the mid-range jump shot. This is a high-percentage shot, as Deng shot an incredible 58 percent from the field and averaged almost 27 points per game in the series, without attempting a single three-point shot.

Deng was given invaluable support by Ben Gordon, whose ability to penetrate and dish created open looks for his teammates. By the end of the series, Gordon had become the de facto point guard, scoring 25.5 points per game, and leading the team with 5.5 assists per game.

The Bulls actual point guard, Kirk Hinrich, struggled with fouls in the first game, but made up for it during the rest of the series with his stellar defense on Dwyane Wade. In his career, Wade has struggled against his hometown team, and the main reason is Hinrich’s defense.

In the end, it was the Bulls’s ability to play as a team that led to their overpowering of the Heat. They hustled on defense and caused a plethora of turnovers that led to easy fastbreak points.

But the biggest difference in this year’s team, as opposed to prior versions, is the maturity they showed in handling adverse situations. In the past, the team would have folded when the Heat made a run and took large leads, as they did in games 3 and 4.

But the Bulls showed remarkable poise for a young team by slowly chipping away and taking over in the fourth quarter of both games. The most positive sign of the series was the two road victories, because these Bulls have been known to struggle away from the United Center.

The road doesn’t get any easier, as the Bulls have to take on the No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons, and the Pistons have the homecourt advantage. Detroit is healthier and younger in comparison to the Heat, and they boast a wealth of recent playoff experience. The Pistons have made it to at least the conference finals for three straight years and are hungry after losing in disappointing fashion to the Heat last year.

The Bulls, however, took three out of four against the Pistons during the regular season and match up well with Detroit.

If the past is any indication, things are looking up for the Bulls. The last time the Bulls swept the Heat in the playoffs was in 1996, also in the opening round; the same year they swept another Shaquille O’Neal-led team, Orlando, in the conference finals. The Bulls went on to win the championship in a fitting end to a historic 72-win season. They have already made history this year as the first team to sweep the defending champs in the opening round in four games. How many more pages do the history books have in store for these Bulls?

Majesh Abraham is a junior in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected].