The Bulls have the Central Division clinched and are eyeballing the Celtics number one seed position

CHICAGO — In other sports, the typical thing to do when a playoff spot is clinched is to rest your players.

Not Chicago.

The Bulls have the Central Division all wrapped up with 19 games to go.

But the Chicago is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. They just last week leap frogged the Miami Heat after eyeballing their second seed positioning all year. Chicago has now turned full speed ahead towards Boston’s top spot in the East, a position the Bulls are only 1.5 games out of.

Chicago is molten lava right now. They’ve arguably been the best team in the NBA the past 10 games going 8-2 and being the first and only team at the moment to have their Division already won. They have the largest first place lead in their Division with Indiana sitting an uncatchable 18.5 games behind the Bulls. The team with the next biggest divisional lead is the Celtics with 12.5 games on the Knicks.

The Bulls are 5-1 in their last 6 road games and head back to the United Center where they are an Eastern Conference best 27-4, for a short three game stretch. Chicago is currently 45-18 and are a half game behind Dallas for the NBA’s third best record, 1.5 behind the Celtics for second and 6 behind San Antonio for the best. And even though they sit at fourth best in the league, they’re in excellent company: tied with the LA Lakers.

So with the Bulls just 1.5 games behind Boston for the top seed in the East, why are the Bulls still getting largely ignored as true championship contenders?

If the Eastern Conference road to the Finals runs through Chicago and the United Center, who can beat the Bulls 27-4 home record? Of contending teams, only the Magic have beat the Bulls in Chicago with Miami, Boston and L.A all losing at the United Center. Plus, that place is loud during the regular season, but home playoff games are a noise nightmare for opposing teams.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.If the road to the Finals runs through the Windy City, will the Bulls finally become the favorites to emerge from the East to face (most likely) L.A. or San Antonio?

Forever Underdogs

They’ll be hard to bet against, that’s for sure. But the story will go from will the Bulls make it out of the first round to which team will upset the Bulls and when.

That’s just the way the mainstream ESPN cookie is going to crumble. It’s honestly going to take Derrick Rose and the Bulls sweeping (more…)