Dong-Whipped

If someone would have told The Beard ten years ago, or fifteen years ago, or better yet twenty years ago, that the Bulls would be in the playoffs against the Cleveland Cavaliers...and the prospect of watching the series would seem like such a chore, that person would have won a lot of money from me.

Nevertheless here we are. The Bulls have made one of the most perfunctory playoff runs which - minus a few exceptions - is playing out the way it is supposed to with the Cavs taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. We've already discussed why this Bulls team has made a playoff appearance completely uninteresting - Vinny will be fired no matter what, the expiring contracts to free up money for free agents next year, blah blah, blah...The only thing left really is to point out the obvious even further.

The obvious being that the Cavs are simply a much better team. You get the sense that they are simply toying with the Bulls the past two games. Tonight's game really summed up this matchup pretty succinctly. The Bulls were down ten, then with superb efforts from Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Flip Murray, and Luol Deng, scratched and clawed their way back into the game, and had a lead in the second half at one point. Then with the score 85-82 Cavs, LeBron decided to be LeBron by dominating the fourth quarter on his way to 40 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists.

The one thing that I will point out in terms of things I can look for, is that we're learning something about LeBron that the jury was largely still out on. We're learning just how much of a Killer Instinct he possesses, particularly against guys dumb enough to talk sh*t about him like Joakim Noah. Noah has dug his own verbal grave a couple times in this series with his opinions on Kevin Garnett and the city of Cleveland in general, but in case you don't remember, there was also an incident between LeBron and Noah in December this season and here's the video footage of it. Noah took exception to LeBron's frequent "rug cutting" that he's displayed over his career, and when Noah told him so, LeBron didn't appreciate the criticism.

With 4:30 left in the fourth quarter tonight, LeBron hit a 3 pointer over Noah, glared at the Bulls bench, and started dancing on his way to 11 straight points to close out the game. It's that kind of performance that tells me that LeBron does have the ability to turn on the switch and do what Doug Collins says the truly great players in the NBA know how to do - close out both the FIRST half and the SECOND half.

The Cavs Dong-Whipping of the Bulls will continue on Thursday night where it looks like they will complete the sweep on Sunday. The sooner the better in my odd little world because the sooner this season ends, the more interesting the Bulls will become as a subject.