Boston 106, Chicago 104 (Overtime)

I hope you are watching this.

[recap] [box score]

Game 5 lacked the overall quality of some of the previous contests in this incredible series, but it ended up the same: A series of big plays from both teams down the stretch of regulation and into overtime, where the outcome was decided on effectively the last possession of the game.

Paul Pierce is going to grab the headlines, shaking off the torpor with which he seemed to be playing for much of the game to hit the game-tying basket at the end of regulation and three straight jumpers to win the game in overtime. But with Pierce struggling for much of the game and Ray Allen limited to just 26 minutes -- he fouled out midway through the fourth on two very dubious calls -- Boston wouldn't have even had a chance without the stellar play of Rajon Rondo, Glen Davis, and Kendrick Perkins. Rondo was only slightly less magnificent than he's been all series and Davis turned in another solid game, but Perkins played the best game I've ever seen him play Tuesday night.

The big fella played more than 48 minutes without committing a foul, two statistics that should blow the mind of anyone at all familiar with Perk or his game. He had his lapses, such as when he failed to stop Derrick Rose on a drive that put Chicago up four with less than two minutes in regulation, but immediately made up for it, blocking a John Salmons jumper after a Rondo drive to preserve the one-possession deficit. Perkins anchored the defense with seven blocked shots, and did a number of other Kevin Garnett-like things throughout the night, diving on the floor for an early loose ball and hitting Rondo with a nifty assist on the pinch post play. Sixteen points, 19 rebounds, seven blocks in 48 minutes -- and Boston needed every one of them.

Quick things:

-Chicago is kicking and screaming about the lack of a flagrant foul call on Rondo with two seconds left in overtime. They are almost surely right, but it didn't necessarily take the game away from them. Brad Miller would have gone to the line for two shots and Chicago would have had the ball on the side, but Boston was still up two. Assuming that Miller would have missed the first free throw (as he did on the shooting foul), Chicago would have only had a shot to win the game - and with no timeout left to draw something up, it would have been a difficult shot. Ben Gordon has specialized in making difficult shots in this series, but let's not act that Chicago would have won but for the lack of the flagrant. And besides, the failure to whistle Rondo for the Flagrant-1 isn't any weirder than fouling Ray Allen out on a double foul call after he got tangled up with Miller on a (moving) screen by Miller.

-Tony Allen played down the stretch in Ray's place, and in just a few minutes, showed why he doesn't play those kind of minutes very often. Doc doesn't trust him, and with good reason. I had just gotten done explaining to a friend that Tony has a low basketball IQ, when he grabbed a rebound in traffic and threw it to the first white jersey he saw -- Kendrick Perkins, running upcourt. Outlet passes to seven-footers at midcourt don't usually end well; thankfully, Perk was able to make the catch under control and get the ball to a guard. It wasn't long thereafter that Tony then fouled Gordon on a very difficult three-point shot, sending Gordon to the line for three free throws that temporarily tied the game.

-Chicago bailed Boston out by putting John Salmons on Pierce down the stretch. Salmons is closer to Pierce's size than Kirk Hinrich, but Hinrich has done a fantastic job on Pierce this whole series. Boston would have had a speed mismatch on whoever Salmons would have been guarding, but it's not like Boston was going anywhere other than Pierce down the stretch.

-I did like Chicago's four guard lineup, with Gordon, Hinrich, Salmons, and Rose playing around a big man. Boston's counter of the starting five sets up a Davis-Salmons matchup. When you create a mismatch on offense, you end up exposing yourself to the same mismatch on defense. But this clearly favored Chicago. Davis can't stay in front of Salmons, and while Salmons gave up a lot of size on the other end, Big Baby doesn't create for himself all that well. Put it this way: Who would you rather bet on in a one-on-one game? The answer is Salmons, and I expect Chicago to do this again in Game 6.

Speaking of Game 6, it's Thursday, back in Chicago, at 7 p.m. Eastern on TNT.