Pau Gasol, Derrick Rose, and Jimmy Butler powered the somewhat forgotten third-seeded Chicago Bulls past the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night 91–82 to take a 2–0 series lead in the Eastern Conference’s opening round and bring them ever closer to a much-anticipated second-round matchup with Cleveland.
While the Bulls are certainly expected to roll past the underdog Bucks, there’s not much chatter about them winning the East, much less making it past LeBron’s Cavs in the next round.
But it would be fun to see.
Cleveland already took Game 1 with the Cavs’ Big Three combining for 69 points in the opener.
They, like Chicago, are expected to roll as well.
Then the fireworks start.
Four years ago, before Derrick Rose’s career took an injury detour, his Bulls were the top seed in the East and Rose was named league MVP. Meanwhile, LeBron’s Heat earned the second seed.
The teams met in the conference finals, and though Chicago took the opener in convincing fashion, 103–82, Miami roared back behind a fierce defense with four straight wins to take the series 4–1 and advance to the NBA Finals.
It turned out to be Chicago’s best shot at a title—until this season.
While Rose then missed much of the next three seasons with various leg injuries, LeBron and the Heat won four straight East titles—as well as a pair of NBA championships, for good measure.
Now LeBron is back in Cleveland with the NBA’s newest Big Three of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and LeBron.
