A Sunday matinee, with the top two teams in the NBA's Eastern Conference rekindling their playoff rivalry from last season.
Derrick Rose says it's just another game.
LeBron James offers a similar sentiment.
That's not entirely true.
Rose and the Chicago Bulls will play James and the Miami Heat today (3:30, WXLV Ch. 7) in a game between the teams with the East's two best records. Chicago won all three regular-season games last season by a combined eight points; the Heat won the conference finals in five games, finishing the series with a wild comeback in Chicago.
"The hype is going to be crazy for this game," Rose said Friday in Chicago. "Just can't buy into it."
James said Saturday after practice: "We hope the fans are excited about the game, but as far as the most-hyped game (of the season so far), I don't think so. We enjoy it. We've got those types of guys who love the big stage, if that's what you want to call it. It's going to be a good game."
Chicago will leave Miami today atop the Eastern standings, no matter the outcome. But the game seems more about landing the first blow in what could be the start of as many as 11 games between the teams this season.
"It's the team that eliminated us last year," center Joakim Noah of the Bulls — who famously called Miami "Hollywood as hell" after the playoff series — said Friday night in a video on the team's website. "And everybody will be waiting for that game. It's a game that as soon as that schedule came out, that's definitely the game that you circle, that you come ready for."
It didn't take long after Friday's game for the Heat to start talking about the Bulls.
"Two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference going at it," Dwyane Wade said. "It's always going to be a great battle when Chicago and the Heat play each other. We've got to get the first one on our home floor."
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