Can Chicago pull off the upset?
I’m talking about this point first because I wanted to talk about it first.
First, I have to acknowledge that I’m going to reference something that I couldn’t find a link to confirm. Take all of this with a grain of salt, please.
I definitely saw a link, and I thought it was related to 538, which crunched the numbers and found that the Bulls were the team most likely to pull off a first-round upset. This is the link that I now cannot find.
If you’re a Celtics fan and you’ve made it this far, feel free to turn on The Departed or crank up your favorite Dropkick Murphys song or discuss Dustin Pedroia’s facial hair. I dunno, do whatever it is that Celtics fans do when they see something that they might not like.
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I think that a Chicago upset is extremely reasonable. And it is all based on a very unscientific approach – my opinion. I think the Bulls are a good team, but only when they play other good teams. They have Butler and Wade and Rondo and a recently very good Nikola Mirotic. They rebound well, better than Boston, and when they’re on, they’re on, no matter how inexplicable it may be.
Honestly, it probably doesn’t have anything to do with Chicago. I really don’t think they belong in the playoffs and if you told me they’re going to get swept, wouldn’t surprise me a bit. The reason that it seems like the Bulls could pull off an upset is mostly about a Celtics team that isn’t compelling.
I really like Jaylen Brown. I know Isaiah Thomas has played very well this year, so have their other important players and the bench. They also have the vastly superior coach by any observable metric. Still, they don’t strike me as a team that would sweep anyone. And if you can’t sweep, even if you are significantly better than your opponent, then you’re vulnerable in some way that a team like Chicago can exploit.
I guess my point is that even if it was only a dollar, you couldn’t get me to bet on this series because nothing would surprise me in either direction.