If you haven’t been watching this Bulls–Celtics series then you’ve been missing some of the best basketball of the season — pros, college, or otherwise. Tonight’s triple-overtime, 128–127 win for the Bulls featured three of the most memorable crunch-time plays I’ve seen in a long time:
1) Derrick Rose blockng Rajon Rondo’s potential game-winning, fade-away jumper (pictured above). It was one of those shots that you just never see blocked. Rose appeared to hang in the air an extra beat to be able to get his fingertips on it.
2) Joakim Noah stealing a Paul Pierce pass and then dribbling three-quarters of the court — faster than Pierce could run — and dunking the ball … and one!
3) Ray Allen sinking an off-balance bomb from the corner of the court over an outstretched Noah. Allen had 51 points and nine three-pointers made in the loss.
The tension throughout this series has been intense, as has the physicality. Tonight’s Flagrant-1 call on Rondo for throwing an off-balance Kirk Hinrich into the scorer’s table was the icing on the cake. (How was that not a Flagrant 2?)
Mad props to Norm and Red for pulling some strings upstairs to deliver one of the best playoff series I’ve ever seen. Four overtime games (outta six) and five games decided on the final possession. Bulls fans can only hope that the final game is a repeat of Game 3: road team kills the home team.