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I'll be the first to admit, after the meltdown that occurred in Game 3 of this series, I was expecting a Pistons Sweep.  I reconciled myself to the fact that they are just too young right now and maybe still a year or two away, and with the Late 80's dancing in my head, I said even Michael's Bulls lost to the Pistons in the play offs a few times.

But then Sunday Morning occurred, now whether it was the cocktails or lack of sleep I'm not sure, but for some reason I had a feeling about the Bulls.  I ended up picking the Bulls for Sunday's Game (proof lies in my obscene bet on them) and somehow they found a way to pull it off and pull it off convincingly.  Still however, going into Tuesday's Game 5, I was prepared to write this off as the Pistons slacking off in Game 4 and figured going back to Detroit the Pistons would put a convincing victory on the Bulls and move into the Eastern Conference Finals.

As of all you know by now, this was not the case and the Baby Bulls came out again and put on a shooting clinic in the first half, followed by a dominating third quarter that sealed another HUGE victory for the Bulls to force a Game 6, back here in Chicago.  So now this raises the question to me, can the Bulls win the Series?

 I'd like to present this list of things that may lead to the Bulls winning this series and being the first NBA team to take 4 consecutive games after starting the series down 0-3.

The Bulls are considerably younger.  The Bulls' starting 5 averages about 28.5, with the Pistons' starters around 30.5 .  Now that is not a huge difference, but if you look at the fact one of the Bulls starters is 37, that makes a huge difference, as does if you include the top 3 players off the bench for each team.  Where the Bulls' first 8 averages 26.5, the Pistons are still hovering right around that thirty mark at 29.5.  Now this can mean two things, that eventually the veteran Pistons will get their act together and the Bulls' inexperience will show as it did in the first three games of this series, or maybe the Bulls are just too young and inexperienced to know they should have been out of it by now.  Also the younger legs of the Baby Bulls might play a factor as they are still able to sky high and get out and run as the aging Pistons have to deal with Webber, Wallace, McDyess and others getting past their prime and slowing down.

Another reason for the Bulls' emergence in the last two games of this series has been that they found their shooting stroke back.  During the four games against Miami, the Bulls shot 46% from the field, 40% from behind the arc, and 81% from the free throw line.  Now lets compare that to the first 3 games of the series against Detroit, where they shot 33.6% from the field, 22.0% from behind the arc and 66.9% from the free throw line.  As you can see they were considerably down across the board.  Now lets look at the last 2 games of this series where the Bulls shot 53.4% from the field, 53.5% from behind the arc and 72% from the field.  Now I realize those numbers in the 50% range (especially from behind the arc) won't hold up most likely, but if they get close to their Miami series averages, or even their regular season averages, you can see that the first three games were just off performances by a young team that was most likely a little overwhelmed.

The above paragraph is proof by numbers, but some have attributed these stats to a Pistons let down and a general lacking of defense in the last two games.  Now I can see where it might be a bit of a let down as it would be normal for a team to relax a little up 3-0 and just kind of mail it in, but its also normal for that team down 0-3 to give up a little so I think those two factors kind of cancel each other out.  As for the lacking in Defense the last two games, I think that is more of the Bulls' finally making the adjustments and finding the passing lanes and hitting shots rather than the Pistons' defense all of a sudden falling off the face of the earth.  

Now all this finally brings us to can the Bulls' win the series?  And I think they can, especially if they force a Game 7.  The pressure is on both clubs now, for the Pistons' to bounce back in Game 6 and for the Bulls to stay alive, so I think that Game 6 is going to be a close hard fought game.  But IF, the Bulls do win and force a Game 7 then all of the pressure turns to the Pistons to not become the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-0 series lead, which is why I believe a Game 6 win for the Bulls would in turn lead to a Game 7 win as well.

Quote of the Day:

"We just aren't ready to go home yet."

--Ben Wallace