Sit back and enjoy greatest NBA drama of all time
CHICAGO -- Someone needs to lock John Paxson and Danny Ainge in a room and not let them out until they've fixed the economy, restored representative government to North Korea, cured swine flu and fitted everyone who wants them with Wolverine claws. If they could assemble the perfect combination of basketball players to give us this, the most ridiculously wonderful and absurd basketball drama of all time, then surely all of that will be a snap.
Think about the thousands, or maybe millions of permutations that could've resulted in something other than these 24 basketball players converging at this moment to provide us with the greatest playoff series in NBA history. Think of all the dynasties, the Hall of Famers, the brilliant coaches, the heated rivalries. Nothing comes close to this.
For whatever reason, these were the only players who could've given us four overtime games, each more thrilling than the last. This was the only combination of humans capable of producing all these last-second shots, all these stitches and all this blood. It wouldn't have worked, otherwise. It would've been like Lost without the right people returning to the island. And when you realize what a strange bunch this is, everything that has transpired between the Celtics and Bulls becomes even more, well, weird.
"This sh-- is ridiculous," the Celtics' Brian Scalabrine said in the visiting locker room of the United Center when it was all over, a 128-127 triple-overtime victory for the Bulls on Thursday night, forcing Game 7 on Saturday in Boston.
"It's like we're starting to see a pattern here with these two clubs, and it's crazy," said Paul Pierce, who must've been divinely selected as the player who would get smacked in the face in Game 6 -- walking to the locker room with a bloody towel and getting stitches in his nose during the third quarter. "... Hey, it all boils down to Game 7. I mean, what more could you ask for?"
On this night, you had Lindsey Hunter, born the same day I was and drafted by the Pistons with Allan Houston in 1993, getting mowed down by Glen "Big Baby" Davis on a screen that freed Eddie House for a corner jumper that cut the Bulls' lead to 126-125 in the third overtime. You had Brad Miller, who couldn't see through his tears and wooziness to make free throws after getting mugged by Rajon Rondo late in Game 5, getting open again on an inbounds play and driving the lane in the first overtime -- eerily similar to what happened two nights ago. Miller made the layup this time, and he made his free throws down the stretch, too.
• Bulls 128, Celtics 127 (3 OT) | Series: Bulls 3, Celtics 3 | Rose All-Rookie | Berger: Suspensions?
"They were going in tonight," Miller said. "There was no doubt about that."
You had John Salmons, acquired with Miller from Sacramento in a fortuitous deadline trade, creating off the dribble and hitting one tough shot after another, to the point where Scalabrine was left shaking his head in the locker room and saying over and over how "huge" Salmons was in this game.
You had Joakim Noah, son of a French tennis player, unable to get his hand up fast enough for Ray Allen's release on a corner jumper with his toes barely grazing the 3-point line with 20 seconds left in the second overtime. You had Allen getting his feet behind the line on the other side of the floor for a 3-pointer over Salmons in front of the Bulls' bench to send it to a third OT.
"I've seen enough Ray Allen threes with less than five seconds left to last a lifetime," Miller said.
You had Noah jumping in the passing lane and stealing Pierce's errant pass for Scalabrine and dribbling the other way for a dunk that drew Pierce's sixth foul with 35.5 seconds left in the third OT.
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| The Bulls-Celtics series is becoming one for the ages. (Getty Images) |
Derrick Rose, the brilliant prodigy from Memphis, blocked Rondo's shot with eight seconds left and the ball squirted through Rondo's hands as he tried to retrieve it. Why didn't he? Because Hinrich collided with Stephon Marbury, the star-crossed, banished ex-Knick who never in a million years was supposed to wind up on the court for a triple-overtime playoff game after spending most of the regular season at his Westchester County, N.Y., home. He and Hinrich got in the way just enough to shield Rondo from the ball, which popped to Rose, who dribbled away and got fouled. He of course missed both free throws, giving Rondo one last chance to slay the Bulls with a 40-footer at the buzzer. It seemed to stay in the air forever as 20,000 people gazed, gasped, tried to breathe or not to breathe. Rondo's shot collided with the backboard as the red light went on and the buzzer sounded and confusion gave way to elation and relief in the United Center.
"How many overtimes was it?" Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "Honestly, I lost count."
Yes, it was over. It had to end sometime. There is one more game -- only one more, we promise -- on Saturday night in Boston. It starts at 8 ET, but I make no predictions as to when it ends.
"It's tiring, it's heartbreaking," Miller said. "I'm sure all the fans, after the fourth quarter and all the overtimes, wished they had another beer."
What now? Surely nothing better than Allen's career playoff-high 51 points, with dagger after dagger sailing toward the rim like heat-seeking missiles. Surely nothing more impressive than Rondo's 19 assists and no turnovers ... or Miller's 8-for-9 shooting with 23 points and 10 rebounds ... or Big Baby hitting all these 15-footers Kevin Garnett was supposed to be hitting.
Just think of all the things that had to happen to bring this precise group of humans together to do this. And then try to imagine what could possibly be next.
