No. 1 Bulls: 62-20, first in the Central Division No. 5 Hawks: 44-38, third in the Southeast Division
Player to watch.
Chicago star Derrick Rose? Not so fast. The player to watch in this series is Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, who will handle the ball more with Kirk Hinrich expected to miss the series because of an injury. Johnson also will need to score like a star if the Hawks are to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. That was a problem during the regular season, when Johnson averaged just 13.7 points and hit only 39 percent of his shots against the Bulls.
Factoid.
Will the third time be the charm for the Hawks? They’re in the Eastern Conference semifinals for the third consecutive season. The Hawks were eliminated by Cleveland and Orlando in the previous two tries.
Bottom line.
Chicago arguably is the best defensive team in the NBA. That will prove to be the difference in this series against the Hawks. They lost the regular-season series with Chicago 2-1 — every game was played in March — while averaging only 80 points per game.
The Post’s pick:
Bulls in five
Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
