The Chicago Bulls NEED to get the one seed in the East

The Chicago Bulls NEED to get the one seed in the East: Big advantage in close series

Although the Eastern Conference is top-heavy, the best teams all boast multiple All-Star players who are capable of an offensive eruption on any given night. It is not unthinkable that the later rounds will be decided by a seventh game.

Should the Bulls find themselves in this predicament, having homecourt would be a huge advantage. According to Bleacher Report, there have been 134 Game 7’s in the history of the NBA playoffs. The road team has only emerged victorious 28 times.

The impact homecourt advantage can have on a series can best be illustrated by the 1994 NBA Finals. The Houston Rockets and New York Knicks were each able to win one game in the other team’s arena. Heading into the seventh and deciding game, it was anybody’s guess as to the final outcome.

The Knicks’ John Starks, who’d been on fire from three-point land the entire series, missed all 11 of his attempts from beyond the arc in the last game of the series. The Knicks would go on to lose by six points.

Had the game been at Madison Square Garden instead of Houston, it’s safe to say Starks would have had a much better shooting night. If that were the case, New York most likely wins the game and the title. History would look much different.

Out of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference, there’s one thing the other teams have in common that the Chicago Bulls do not. They each feature superstar players who’ve had big performances in the NBA Finals.

The Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler put on a performance for the ages in Game 5 of the 2020 Finals. Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets each know what its like to win Finals MVP. Chicago’s roster cannot boast any of those claims. They will need all the help they can get if they meet those teams in a series.