RealGM

«61-17 37-40»

ESPN wrote:Still needing to play catch-up for the East's eighth seed, the Bulls open a critical stretch of three games in four nights Thursday at home against the Cavaliers, who may give LeBron James some rest with the NBA's top record wrapped up.

Toronto leads Chicago (37-40) in a close race for the No. 8 seed and the right to face Cleveland (61-17) in the first round, and the Bulls had a golden opportunity to pull even with the Raptors on Tuesday. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, have nothing to gain over their final four games but perhaps some rest. James played 35 minutes Tuesday -- still his least amount of action since March 1 -- but could see his workload decrease against the Bulls and Friday against Indiana.

James has averaged 25.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 8.0 assists in three relatively lackluster games against Chicago, which won 86-85 in Cleveland on Nov. 5 despite shooting 40.9 percent.

The Bulls will likely need Rose to step up if they're going to avoid a sixth loss in eight games to Cleveland. The reigning Rookie of the Year has averaged 13.8 points on 34.0 percent shooting in six career games against the Cavaliers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=300408004


From Brian Windhorst's Twitter:

PDcavsinsider wrote:Delonte West (back) & Daniel Gibson (foot) likely will not play tomorrow at Chicago. Could be debut for Sebastian Telfair in Cavs uniform.

PDcavsinsider wrote:To be fair, Mike Brown likely to play all starters vs. Bulls like Raptors. But look for a wave of inactives including LeBron Fri. vs. Indy

Once the playoffs begin, I'll be starting a discussion series for all the rounds, and will be making all the game threads. Any objections and what not, just let me know.

We can pretty much lock in TOR as our 1st round opponent by beating CHI.

With Bosh injured, that would be a nice and easy 4 game sweep.

i think it's a sweep regardless of whether bosh plays or not...the raps just don't play defense at all

If Bassy plays, hope he gets to get some run with LeBron. Still remember the two of them together on the cover of SLAM when they were still in HS.

Hope Delonte gets healthy, mentally and physically. Mentally is just as important as physically for competitive sports.

^^Someone forgot to let Telfair know that he should be ruling the world right now. Imagine that.

mcfly1204 wrote:^^Someone forgot to let Telfair know that he should be ruling the world right now. Imagine that.

Is LeBron playing tonight?

^^^ He isn't returning the texts yet....

LOL

Well LeBron is on the shelf tonight and Delonte is sitting as well. Not sure who's going to be aggressive on offense. Hopefully Mo decides that he's going to play the way he did against Toronto where he's taking the ball to the hoop.

This absolutely looks like we are screwing Toronto

We should be able to beat them without LeBron.

prekazi wrote:We should be able to beat them without LeBron.

But please do not.

At this point, I prefer to have Toronto in the first round instead of Chicago.. I say we should really win this one.

WhateverBro wrote:Is LeBron playing tonight?

Nope. West and Gibson are out too.

How the hell did Gibson injure his foot? He hasn't even been playing since Mo returned.

Without Bron Bron this is a loss.

Looks like we will get CHI in the first round!

Jawad starting for LeBron.

Sick pass from Mo to AJ.. And wow, I don't remember the last time I've seen Deng play.

Mo is playing like Steve Nash.