Jimmy Butler played all 48 minutes in his team's win (Getty Images)

The ongoing saga of the plucky 2012-13 Chicago Bulls has spiraled into the realm of the ridiculous. Battling injury and illness, and just 48 hours after downing a much-hyped Brooklyn Nets team on the road in a deciding Game 7, the Chicago Bulls found yet another gear in their remarkable season as they downed the defending champion Miami Heat in Game 1 of their conference semifinal series by a 93-86 score. As a result, the Bulls now own the home court advantage in a series that absolutely no one, outside of team message boards, has picked the Bulls to win.

Chicago threw off the scent early, running out to a 10-4 lead to start the game with stout defense and excellent recovery rhythms, while the sluggish Heat attempted to work its way back into NBA speed. The Heat had not played since downing the Milwaukee Bucks on April 28, and the rust showed. Several good looks refused to go down for Miami in the first half, and despite improved execution in the second half fatigue may have played a part in Chicago’s comeback from a seven-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

[Related: Bulls’ Marco Belinelli fined $15K for ‘obscene gesture’]

“Boo-hoo,” says the Chicago Bulls.

The Houston Rockets, before their Game 6 loss (Getty Images)

With every season that ends, for the playoff teams at least, we felt it right to take a look ahead. TNT already has the rights to "Gone Fishin'," and because we're sure that someone, somewhere, still likes that Wyclef song, we're going with "Gone Till November." And, yes, we know the season starts in October. Today? The Houston Rockets.

The Houston Rockets entered the 2012 offseason as a great unknown, flush with draft picks and cap space and the usual batch of assets. It entered last fall’s training camp as a great unknown, with a massive roster with no clear cut direction. It then entered the regular season as a great unknown, dealing those assets for James Harden and ushering in an intriguing new roster without the benefit of a training camp or exhibition season to warm up its new star.

After a fantastic 2012-13 campaign, the Houston Rockets now enter the 2013 offseason as, you guessed it, a great unknown. The team has still managed to retain endless assets and cap space, and figure to be a major player once again as it deals in trades or works with free agents. There is a very real chance that the Rockets that their fans knew and enjoyed in 2012-13 could be moved elsewhere by autumn, as the team attempts to take that tough step between the lower rungs of the playoff bracket, and a potential championship contender.

Larry Drew, following Atlanta's Game 6 loss (Getty Images)

With every season that ends, for the playoff teams at least, we felt it right to take a look ahead. TNT already has the rights to "Gone Fishin'," and because we're sure that someone, somewhere, still likes that Wyclef song, we're going with "Gone Till November." And, yes, we know the season starts in October. Today? The Atlanta Hawks.

The last time the Atlanta Hawks decided to clean house, its intentions were obvious, and the results were brutal. The team dealt for Al Harrington and traded for Antoine Walker’s expiring contract before the 2004-05 season in an attempt to remain competitive and intriguing to local fans while punting away a season, and that mishmash only gave the Hawk faithful 13 wins out of 82 tries. Atlanta then watched as their league-worst record only allowed the team the second overall pick, a place that saw general manager Billy Knight pass on both Chris Paul and Deron Williams to select Marvin Williams.

In the offseason, the team decided to throw drafts picks (draft picks that were later turned into Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez) Phoenix’s way in order to secure a sign-and-trade deal for Joe Johnson. Johnson was a player that the Hawks could have just signed outright, but Knight wanted to give the scoring swingman Bird Rights-styled money that the Phoenix Suns were not offering him. The move drew a wedge between the team’s warring ownership factions, resulting in a court case, and it still was the second-worst contract Atlanta ever signed Joe Johnson to.

The appropriate reaction, following Boston's Game 6 loss (Getty Images)

With every season that ends, for the playoff teams at least, we felt it right to take a look ahead. TNT already has the rights to "Gone Fishin'," and because we're sure that someone, somewhere, still likes that Wyclef song, we're going with "Gone Till November." And, yes, we know the season starts in October. Today? The Boston Celtics.

Boston’s immediate future is as obvious as its longtime future is cloudy. The team will have no clue about how to initiate plans for 2013-14 and beyond until Kevin Garnett commits to coming back for another season. If Garnett retires, he’ll peel money off of their books and set into motion plans to either deal or cut Celtic legend Paul Pierce. If this sounds cold and calculating, understand that both KG, Pierce and the Celtics are quite aware of how cold and calculating you have to be in order to survive in this league, and team personnel boss Danny Ainge in particular understands that sharp, decisive moves have to be put into play immediately following the breakup of a legendary team.

The cloudier, summer-long future doesn’t provide as many easy answers. Because Garnett (obviously drained and at the height of his “I’m too old for this ****”-peak following Boston’s opening round loss to the New York Knicks) didn’t immediately announce his retirement following the last game of Boston’s season, it seems assured that he’ll want to return for his 19th season. Garnett, who turns 37 later this month, is set to make over $12.4 million next year, money he would leave on the table should he decide to hang it up.

LeBron James appears to be handling this well (Getty Images)

LeBron James seemed like the perfect candidate to not only win the NBA’s MVP award for 2012-13, but become the first unanimously-voted MVP winner in the award’s history. Not only would James had deserved the unanimous vote, based on his brilliant season, but the process would have served as a reification of sorts for the massive mistake former CNN anchor Fred Hickman made in 2000, when he cast a lone vote for Allen Iverson in the year that Shaquille O’Neal dominated the NBA.

The votes are in. LeBron has won the MVP, and he didn’t win in unanimous fashion. Because some voter, as yet unnamed, thought that Carmelo Anthony had a better year than LeBron James did this season.

[Related: Knicks drop Game 1 at home to Pacers | Highlights]

Anthony received one second-place vote, out of the 121 possible votes cast. We’re not sure what sort of TV and/or radio personality NBA analyst cast the vote, but it seems a ridiculous notion in the face of a season that LeBron James proved superior to Carmelo Anthony in every aspect of professional basketball. James trumped the brilliant Kevin Durant in the same way; though Kevin produced an MVP-level season, he finished a rightful second in the voting. Anthony, most should deduce, had a fine but not MVP season.

Other goofball nods?

Marc Gasol after an entertaining Grizzlies victory over the Thunder in March (Getty Images)

Somehow, the NBA survived its regular season and first round of the postseason with enough players to field eight teams, so we’re just going to go ahead and begin the conference semifinals. The minds behind Ball Don’t Lie are going to preview each second-round series, with Kelly Dwyer going against character for a more genial take, Dan Devine bringing his inimitable mixture of both order and bedlam, along with Eric Freeman’s legendary look inside the reputations of some of the series’ key fixtures.

We continue with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies.

Which team do you think will win the series, and in how many games? Vote here to let us know what you think.

Nate Robinson in the final minute of Game 6 (Getty Images)

The Chicago Bulls aren’t ones to rest on their laurels — neither their coaching staff nor their locker-room influences would allow for that — but it is worth noting that Chicago never was supposed to be playing an important game on May 4. This is a team that very few (mostly locals) had pegged to win more than 45 games even with the assumption that Derrick Rose would return sometime in late winter or early spring (in Chicago, it’s hard to tell the two apart). Rose sat out the entire season, though. All-Star center Joakim Noah has been playing on one wheel since January, and all manner of injury and now illness have hit these Bulls like a Tom Boerwinkle-sized punch to the gut.

And yet, here they are. Suiting up for one more try to overcome it all. Different day, different starting lineup, different “it all” left to overcome.

Chicago should be the massive underdog for Saturday night’s Game 7 against the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets were the better team entering this series, they’ve played Chicago to three close losses prior to Chicago losing Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng, and they’ve done well to grow and adjust against a Bulls team that seemed to have every answer for its $83 million offense. Not only has talent on paper resulted in three strong wins against Chicago, but these Nets have earned their Game 7 opportunity. You may not respect some of the shot-taking decisions these Nets make, or the way the team was put together, but Brooklyn hasn’t backed into this.

[Also: Kobe Bryant in lawsuit against his mom]

Still, you can’t scout for the ridiculous. And as crazy a notion as it seems, the Bulls could actually take Game 7. They could play beyond May 4. They could fool us. Again.

Luol Deng on Thursday evening (Getty Images)

During Thursday night’s Chicago Bulls loss to the Brooklyn Nets, a CSNChicago.com report surfaced that turned Luol Deng’s “he’s sick and missed practice”-diagnosis to something altogether more severe. Aggrey Sam reported that Deng had undergone a spinal tap at a local hospital in order to test for meningitis, which is why Deng was sent home from the United Center prior to Game 6.

Because Taj Gibson looked terribly sick during the contest, and Nate Robinson actually had to throw up into a wastebasket on the Bulls bench, the popular take was that Deng must have had the fluiest-flu of them all, but nothing more than the flu. This was exacerbated after the game by Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, who referred to Deng’s illness as “flu-like symptoms.”

It really upsets me that everyone thinks I would miss a game bc of the flu. I've played a lot of games w the flu in my career.

— Luol Deng (@LuolDeng9) May 3, 2013

On Wed I was taken to the ER and my symptoms indicated I may have meningitis In order to play on Thurs I was ... m.tmi.me/Uagd5 — Luol Deng (@LuolDeng9) May 3, 2013

As a result of the spinal tap I suffered the worst headache I've ever experienced and been the weakest I've ever felt.

— Luol Deng (@LuolDeng9) May 3, 2013