Second Round Preview: Bulls - Pistons

The big talk about this series seems to be about "matchups". Deng-Prince, Hinrich-Billups, and Gordon-Hamilton are the 3 most notable. But I'm actually intrigued to see C. Webb on defense against Ben Wallace. C. Webb is like a fuckin cat on defense these days.

Certainly going to be a rude awakening for the Bulls in this series. They moonwalked past the Heat in round 1 which means they'll go from playing a team with the worst perimeter defense to a team with clearly one of the best.

I'm interested to see the impact of Big Ben in this series. The fact that he used to play for the Pistons doesn't mean shit to me. But after the Bulls got waxed in game 6 of the first round last year - and Shaq poured in 30 and 20 for the first time in EASILY a half decade- the Bulls felt pressured to use the spare cash from the Eddy Curry trade to get a guy more capable of stopping Shaq. Well, they probably could've used CHRIS Wallace at center (the Notorious B.I.G for all you non-rap fans out there. But if you're reading a basketball blog then I imagine you have a pretty good grip on the 'ol rap scene) So yeah - Biggie could've played center it wouldn't have changed a a goddamn thing in round 1.

But it'll be kinda funny if the absence of Ben Wallace's defense and rebounding for the Pistons is actually overshadowed by the slight boost in their offense - now that they can play 5 capable scorers at once.

The pick: Pistons in 7.