Chicago 128, Boston 127 (Triple Overtime)

Doc Rivers would be a heckuva basketball coach if he knew anything about basketball.

[box score] [recap]

For a guy who enjoyed a moderately successful 13-season NBA career as a point guard, Rivers' basketball instincts on the sideline often lead to some very curious decisions. He's been great in some respects with these Celtics, managing three star players, turning the defense over to assistant Tom Thibodeau. And he did many things right Thursday night, keeping Boston's head in the right place after Rajon Rondo whipped Kirk Hinrich into the scorers' table, pro-wrestling style, in the first quarter, and having the "we can win this if we want it" attitude even when the team fell behind 12 points with ten minutes to play. But when the team responded, proving him right, going on an 18-0 to take a 99-91 lead with 3:38 to go, he let them down.

Chicago cut it to 99-96 in the next 90 seconds, and that's when Rivers panicked. Reacting to a couple of good Chicago possessions, he inserted Tony Allen for Glen Davis to match up against Chicago's small lineup. It was a peculiar time for the move, since the Celtics were about to go on offense -- where the Davis/Salmons matchup favored them. Boston scored on that trip down the floor, but it was the next two possessions that killed them.

A Rondo-Tony-Ray Allen-Paul Pierce-Kendrick Perkins unit allows the opposition to devote two help defenders to stopping Pierce and Ray. With the Bulls giving those two no room, Boston's next two possessions ended in a contested layup and a very difficult runner by Tony at the end of the shot clock. Both missed. Chicago hit the shots they needed, and bingo -- overtime.

The NBA is all about matchups, it's true, and Davis-Salmons, as I said in my last post, favors Chicago. But in that situation, up five points with that little time on the clock, Boston has the advantage of not needing to play matchups. They were in the driver's seat. Another bucket or two seals the game, while Chicago needed to be almost perfect on both ends of the floor. That's the time to put the hammer down and put your best five out there.

Fast-forwarding, now, past a seemingly an endless string of big shots, to the end of the third overtime. Boston had the ball down one with less than a shot clock left, the beneficiaries of a shocking missed layup by Hinrich on the other end. Other relevant details include the fact that Pierce had fouled out, and that Ray Allen had, at the time, 51 points.

The play Rivers ended up calling was an isolation for Rondo at the top of the key. Rondo drove left on Derrick Rose and faked, only Rose didn't bite. Rondo went up for a difficult fallaway, which the much larger Rose blocked rather easily.

I can at least understand the rationale. Especially with Pierce watching from the bench, the Bulls would have surely run a second defender at Ray, willing to take their chances on a jumper from Stephon Marbury, Brian Scalabrine, Rondo, or even the uncharacteristically cold Eddie House. And Rondo has been to able to get to the rim against Rose throughout this series...

...with the exception of this game. While Rondo put up another gaudy stat line in a series during which he had been averaging a triple-double -- nine rebounds and 19 assists, with no turnovers -- he had been quiet scoring, with only eight points. Rondo has nights when he isn't aggressive, and on those nights, I don't think putting the ball in his hands is the right play. And by not running anything for Ray, there was no opportunity to make the Bulls blow a defensive assignment and let somebody slip a screen and roll to the basket. And, finally, Ray was video-game hot, hitting jumpers from all over the place no matter who was in his face. When Ray is going like that, anything he throws up has a good chance to go in.

Look, Boston could have done a million little things to win this game. Perkins left Brad Miller open for a three in regulation and an easy layup off an inbounds play in overtime (the first one). Pierce had a great look at the game-winner at the end of regulation and just missed it. Both Ray and House hit jumpers in overtime with a toe on the line, which my father has been telling me since I was old enough to listen is the worst shot in basketball. Pierce's turnover at 123-123 with 40 seconds left in triple OT was bad, and committing his sixth foul on the ensuing Joakim Noah dunk was worse. But Rivers' curious use of his bench and refusal to ride Ray has been a theme for the last two seasons, a theme easily recognized by any semi-serious fan of the team.

Whatever. This incredible series -- if not the best all-time, certainly the most entertaining -- goes back to Boston for Game 7, and I'll admit that for the first time, I'm afraid of the Bulls. I wasn't worried down 11 in the fourth quarter of Game 5 or down 12 in the fourth in game 6. But this series now has had seven extra periods, and Ray played 59 minutes in Game 6, Pierce 51. Chicago had to play those minutes too, of course, but they are younger, and deeper. And Game 7 is less than 48 hours away.

And the pressure is on the defending champs, too, to close it out at home after having squandered some good opportunities to have put the Bulls away. The Celtics have doggedly defended their title, and they will need that pride to carry them through.

Game 7 tips at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, on TNT.