Yes, I did write that thread and it didn't end well, but that was a sarcastic thread where I stretched the truth a bit.  Pretty much everything in this thread is 100% accurate except for me maybe fudging about the Celtics average age a bit.  What i'm basically saying is that I don't have to make up comedy when it comes to the Heat.  It writes itself.

The last Bulls / Heat playoff series was in 2007.  The Miami Heat were the defending champions and got swept by the Bulls (who honestly weren't that good).  This was the first team that a defending champion was swept in over 50 years.  See, it writes itself.

I don't want to get ahead of myself and know that it was only one game, but I'm wondering if the oddsmakers are reconsidering their decision of favoring the Heat in this series after that thrashing at the hands of the Bulls.  My favorite play was when Lebron tried to beat Taj Gibson one on one and got rejected.

I think tonight just demonstrated how this series is going to be handled.

No.  Oddsmakers don't make the odds based on who they think is going to win.  They make the odds based on who other people think is going to win.

All the "common" money was with the heat.

Only in Soccer. That's right, SOCCER.

Anyone but the Heat.  The Heat are bad for the NBA, if their model works.  It is good if it implodes and they never win anything.  That is not how you build a team.  Assemble 3 max contracts on the fly and fill the rest with league minimum contracts?  Nope, that is not a way to do it.  If it ended up working, then the NBA shifts into a big 3 in the prime model.

Anyhow, will see how it goes here.  The NBA is likely going to face a prolonged lockout, likely joining the NFL to.

The lockout will be interesting.  In a way, the Heat gave the owners an enormous amount of ammo to put on a hard cap and give more power to the drafting teams.

I wouldn't be surprised if they made a rule where max "franchise" players can't be traded.

I don't see that happening regarding max franchise players.  A club losing money may want to end up moving a player.  Option could be that both sides would have to agree to trades.  However, there could be rules against the number of max players you can have.  But the 3 in Miami did what they could to get together.

In a sense you are right.  The oddsmakers make their lines to where they think that they will get the most two-way action, meaning the same amount of people will vote on the favorites and the underdogs according to the line.  I just have a hard time believing that people would bet on the Heat and give points when the games's in Chicago and the Heat haven't beaten them all year.  Maybe this is the way that people are betting but it doesn't make sense.  The Heat are favored again despite getting beaten by 20 points.  Are people really that unknowledgable?

Anyhow,  basically all I was doing was complaining that my favorite basketball team isn't getting enough respect.  It's a Chicago thing and I wouldn't expect anyone not from there to understand.