ShareThisThe deserved cheers had finally dimmed to a mere rumble and exhausted Celtics fans had danced their way outside when a bit of reality set in for the defending NBA champions on Monday night.
Sure, Ray Allen had swished a clutch 3-pointer with two seconds left to give the Celts a heart-stopping 118-115 victory over Chicago. The shot evened the first-round playoff series, 1-1. But after everyone's head had cleared, it seemed like the Bulls were packing for the Windy City with a major leg up on the Celts.
As Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas put it: "To be 1-1 headed back to the United Center is a good feeling for us. We're excited."
That's putting it mildly. The youthful Bulls came to Boston last Friday not knowing if they could stay on the same court with the Celtics. They have that answer now. After scratching out a 105-103 win in overtime in Game 1, the Bulls could be called lucky. Paul Pierce, after all, missed a potential winning free throw in the final seconds of regulation that gave the Bulls another chance to win in the extra session.
That shifted all the pressure to the champs in Game 2. This would be the game that the Celtics showed the rest of the NBA that all was right with their world, Kevin Garnett or no Kevin Garnett. The Celtics would send the youthful Bulls a message, showing that they intend on ripping through this series and setting their sights on bigger Eastern Conference fish.
Instead, the champs are lucky to still be in this series. Throughout the fourth quarter, the Bulls kept coming down the floor and scorching the Celtics' once-haughty defense. More specifically, Ben Gordon seemingly did whatever he wanted with the game on the line. The Connecticut alum took dead aim at fellow UConn product Allen and scored his team's final 12 points. He finished with 14 points in the quarter and a head-shaking 42 for the game.
"It was fun," said Gordon. "It felt like we were at UConn in the summertime playing pickup or something."
Allen said he enjoys coming back to Storrs every summer, catching up with coach Jim Calhoun and showing the young guys just who has the most game. Gordon has been in his crosshairs over the years, and the two hooked up for a doozy of a shootout in this game.
After a Gordon floater over Allen gave the Bulls a 113-112 lead with 46 seconds left, Allen stepped up. First he nailed a killer 3-pointer after Rajon Rondo had somehow chased down an offensive rebound. But Gordon didn't flinch. He hit a step-back 20-footer to tie the game at 115.
Coming out of a timeout with 12 seconds left, Rondo (who's triple double included 19 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds) found Allen curling off a screen. Allen caught the ball, squared and had Chicago big man Joakim Noah running at him. No matter. Swish. Game to Boston, but the Bulls hardly seemed deflated.
"It was just a fun game out there," said Derrick Rose, the Bulls' precocious rookie, who shook off foul trouble and finished with 10 points and 7 assists. "Ray hit a tough shot over a seven-footer, fading back. If that's not the shot you want somebody to take, I don't know what is."
The Celtics know they were fortunate to escape with a win. They can't stop the Bulls, plain and simple. A team that won the title last spring largely on defense isn't getting it done right now. Without Garnett's spider-like frame roaming the paint, the Bulls can get pretty much whatever they want out of their offense.
The Celtics know they aren't playing well and time is running short.
"I think we feel very confident because we feel like we haven't even played good basketball yet," said team captain Pierce. "We win tonight and we feel like we should have won Game 1. I feel like this is pretty much our 'C' game. We're a team that doesn't give up 100 points in consecutive games."
The Bulls see it differently. They put up 105 and 115 points on the road. That's their game. They love to run, and Rose and Gordon are a dynamic scoring twosome. If Noah and Thomas can rebound a bit better, the Celtics could be in dire straights when the series continues at the United Center.
"We would've loved to win this game and go back to Chicago up 2-0," said Gordon, "but we got a split, and that's tough to do on the defending champions' court."
(Contact Kevin McNamara at kmcnamar@projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The Providence Journal
