Let's give thanks to New Jersey

Back on April 18th, the Cavs and Bulls were tied for the 2nd seed, but Chicago held the tiebreaker. Cleveland downed Milwaukee and watched while New Jersey upset the Bulls to givce the Cavs the coveted 2-spot in the playoffs.

As a result, Cleveland drew a much easier playoff route. They took on Washington, a MUCH weaker opponent, while Chicago drew the defending champion Miami Heat.

Both teams swept their first round adversary, but the easy route did not end there. The Cavaliers have to go through the Nets to get to the Eastern Conference Finals, while Chicago faces the Detroit Pistons.

In Game 1, Detroit embarrassed Chicago by 26 points, 95-69. And last night in Game 2, the Pistons kept it up and again embarrassed the Bulls, this time by 21 points, 108-87.

I personally don't think Chicago can rebound from two humiliating defeats like that in time to win 4 of the next 5 games.

But what I do know is that if it hadn't been for the New Jersey Nets defeating Chicago on April 18th, we'd be playing the Pistons right now (but hopefully we wouldn't be playing like the Bulls, who look like a scared CBA team right now). Detroit is peaking right now and playing great basketball, the best I've seen from them this year....at least we should get two weeks worth of watching their best game film and using it for preparation.

So let's give thanks to New Jersey. They helped make it somewhat easier on us.

OK, gratitude is over. Let's whip their asses now. Tipoff is in 11 hours. Go Cavs!