STORY LINE: Of the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference, the Heat may not represent the ideal upset candidate for the Bulls–but perhaps it’s not far off. The Heat’s two wins over the Bulls this season were by a combined four points, Dwyane Wade shot only 24 percent from the floor against his hometown team and Shaquille O’Neal was managed, if not shut down, to the tune of 43 points and 12 rebounds total in the teams’ two meetings that mattered. The Bulls are unfettered by expectation– which is to say they have none–and did go 9-1 in April. But they do not have the fifth-leading scorer in the regular season (Wade), they do not have the game’s most dominant force on his good days (O’Neal) and they do not have the depth of experience the Heat enjoys. It is no accident Miami won 11 more games than the Bulls. It will take a variety of serendipitous performances to beat Miami.
BULLS STARTING FIVE
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G Ben Gordon 16.9 pts 3.0 asts 42 FG% 79 FT%
G Kirk Hinrich 15.9 pts 6.3 asts 42 FG% 82 FT%
F Luol Deng 14.3 pts 6.6 rebs 46 FG% 75 FT%
F Andres Nocioni 13.0 pts 6.1 rebs 46 FG% 84 FT%
C Tyson Chandler 5.3 pts 9.0 rebs 57 FG% 50 FT%
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THE BENCH
G Chris Duhon 8.7 pts 5.0 asts 40 FG% 82 FT%
C Michael Sweetney 8.1 pts 5.3 rebs 45 FG% 65 FT%
F Malik Allen 4.9 pts 2.6 rebs 49 FG% 61 FT%
F Oth. Harrrington 4.8 pts 2.1 rebs 50 FG% 63 FT%
G Jannero Pargo 4.8 pts 1.6 asts 37 FG% 81 FT%
G Eric Piatkowski 2.0 pts 0.8 rebs 39 FG% 40 FT%
C Luke Schenscher 1.8 pts 1.5 rebs 62 FG% 31 FT%
G Randy Livingston 0 pts 0.8 rebs 0-2 FG 0-0 FT
HEAT STARTING FIVE
G Dwyane Wade 27.2 pts 6.7 asts 50 FG% 78 FT%
G Jason Williams 12.3 pts 4.9 asts 44 FG% 87 FT%
F Antoine Walker 12.2 pts 5.1 rebs 44 FG% 63 FT%
F Udonis Haslem 9.3 pts 7.8 rebs 51 FG% 79 FT%
C Shaquille O’Neal 20.0 pts 9.2 rebs 60 FG% 47 FT%
THE BENCH
G Derek Anderson 8.1 pts 2.3 asts 36 FG% 84 FT%
C Alonzo Mourning 7.8 pts 5.5 rebs 60 FG% 59 FT%
G Gary Payton 7.7 pts 3.2 asts 42 FG% 79 FT%
F James Posey 7.2 pts 4.8 rebs 40 FG% 79 FT%
F Jason Kapono 4.1 pts 1.4 rebs 45 FG% 85 FT%
F Wayne Simien 3.4 ppg 2.0 rebs 48 FG% 88 FT%
C Michael Doleac 3.2 pts 2.7 rebs 42 FG% 80 FT%
G Shandon Anderson 2.6 pts 0.6 asts 43 FG% 72 FT%
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