#1 Chicago Bulls vs. #5 Atlanta Hawks

How Bulls Got Here: Defeating Pacers in 5 games (Average Score: 98-90)

How Hawks Got Here: Defeating Magic in 6 games (Average Score: 87-89)

Season Series: Bulls Held 2-1 Advantage

3/2 - @ Atlanta - 83-80 Hawks - The Bulls opened on a 14-0 run but a career night from Al Horford helped the Hawks come back. Horford had 31 points and 16 rebounds while Derrick Rose struggled. He made just 5 of 21 shots and committed 6 turnovers.

3/11 - @ Chicago - 94-76 Bulls - The Bulls ran away with this game in the 3^rd quarter, outscoring the Hawks 24-10 including 18 from Rose. The Hawks were killed on the glass, 50-28 and their starters combined to shoot 39-percent.

3/14 - @ Atlanta - 114-81 Bulls - Rose went 6 for 8 from 3-point range and had a team-high 30 points and 10 assists. The Bulls were able to pull their starters for the entire fourth quarter leading by 38 after 3.

Bulls' Biggest Weakness Exposed Round 1: The Pacers put 6'8 Paul George on Rose and it caused the presumptive MVP a lot of problems.

Hawks' Biggest Weakness Exposed Round 1: Their offense was simplistic and ineffective.

Bulls' Biggest Strength From Round 1: The ability to close out games. They outscored the Pacers in  all 5 fourth quarters.

Hawks' Biggest Strength From Round 1: They were tenacious on the boards and created a lot of second chance opportunities.

STARTERS

BULLS                                   HAWKS

Derrick Rose                           Kirk Hinrich*/Jamal Crawford

Keith Bogans                          Joe Johnson

Luol Deng                               Marvin Williams

Carlos Boozer                         Josh Smith

Joakim Noah                           Al Horford

Advantage: Bulls - They were the best defensive team in the league and have all the right pieces to shut down the Hawks.
Hinrich was the best option to attempt to defend Rose but he is now doubtful to play in the series because of a hamstring injury. That would match Jamal Crawford on Rose and Crawford isn't exactly known for his defense. Boozer is also injured (turf toe) but Josh Smith is a good matchup for him because he doesn't need to stray too far out of the paint.

BENCH

BULLS CONTRIBUTORS   HAWKS CONTRIBUTORS

Kyle Korver                            Jamal Crawford

Taj Gibson                             Jason Collins

Ronnie Brewer                        Zaza Pachulia

Kurt Thomas                          Jeff Teague

Omer Asik

CJ Watson

Advantage: Bulls - Jamal Crawford is one of the best sixth men in the league but it looks like he will have to be an amazing fifth man with Hinrich out. The Bulls are much deeper across the board (even before Hinrich's injury) and lose very little replacing four of their five starters with their back-up and they don't need to worry too much about Derrick Rose's back-up because Rose tends to play just about every minute of every game. Crawford was on fire in the Magic series, hitting on 46-percent of his 3-point shots but Korver was similarly effective hitting on 59-percent of his looks from deep.

Matchup to Watch: Joakim Noah's defense vs. Al Horford. The Hawks are 12-5 when Horford scored over 20 points this season. If Noah can keep him off the glass and make him inefficient on the offensive end it will be tough for the rest of the Hawks to pick up that slack.

Storyline You'll Be Sick of: None. This series won't last long enough to get sick of hearing how great Derrick Rose is. The only thing that might get annoying is the debate over whether the extra rest and easy series will cause problems for the Bulls against the "battle-tested" winner of the Heat-Celtics series.

That's a little too much rest, Joakim.

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SUMMARY:  A great matchup for the Bulls got even better with Hinrich's injury. Crawford will probably have to guard Rose and that will hurt his offensive output. Luol Deng is a great defensive matchup against Joe Johnson and Boozer should be able to do enough to not get killed by Josh Smith. The only advantage the Hawks might have is Al Horford vs. Joakim Noah but that is doubtful at best.

The way to beat the Bulls is through great ball movement and interior play and neither of those are the Hawks' biggest strengths. The Hawks will need to force turnovers to get transition buckets and avoid grinding it out against the best defense in the NBA. It was easy for the Hawks to shut down the Magic. They have the big men to defend Howard in the post and made sure the perimeter players didn't get open jumpers. But the Bulls are much more dynamic than that. Their wing players can take it to the hole and their big men don't camp out in the post. 

Prediction: Sweep.