CELTS TOP FEISTY BULLS TO EVEN SERIES

One thing has become apparent early in the NBA playoffs—nothing is going to come easily for the defending champion Boston Celtics.  After suffering an overtime loss in the upstart Chicago Bulls in game one of their opening round series, the Celtics again found themselves in a tightly contested battle on Monday night in Boston.  This time, however, they managed to escape with a victory thanks to the heroics of Ray Allen who nailed a tiebreaking three point shot with 2 seconds remaining to give the Celtics a 118-115 win.

Allen led the Celtics with 30 points as all five Boston starters scored in double figures.  Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis had a solid game filling in for the injured Kevin Garnett at the power forward slot, scoring 26 points and pulling down 9 rebounds to just miss a ‘double/double’.  Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins managed to each complete a ‘double/double’—Rondo scored 19 points and dished out 16 assists, while Perkins scored 16 points and hauled in 12 rebounds.  Paul Pierced scored 18 points and also flirted with his own ‘double/double’ by grabbing 8 rebounds.  The bad news in all of this was the utter irrelevance of the Boston bench, who managed only 9 total points and was outscored by their Chicago counterparts 27-9.

The Bulls were led by Ben Gordon, who shot the lights out posting a game high 42 points.  John Salmons added 17, while reserve Brad Miller just missed a ‘double/double’ with 16 points and 9 rebounds.  Joakim Noah added 13 and Derrik Rose 10 to round out the Bulls double digit scorers. 

After the game, Celtics’ hero Allen said that he benefitted from some Zen-like halftime advice given to him by coach Doc Rivers:

"Doc said going into the half, 'Be aggressive, but let it come to you.’I never think I'm not in my rhythm. It can be a grind as a shooter. As a scorer you're always trying to find something."

Allen had a horrible game one, going 1-12 from the floor, scoring only four points and missing a potential game tying basket at the end of OT.  His fellow Connecticut Huskie alum Ben Gordon said the personal rivalry made the game fun, and that he had no doubt that Allen’s scoring slump wouldn’t last long:

"It felt like we were at UConn in the summertime playing pickup. He is a great shooter and I knew he would break out eventually."

Celtics’ guard Paul Pierce took a ‘glass half full’ approach to his team’s split of the first two games at home:

"We feel very confident because we feel like we haven't even played good basketball yet. Our best is yet to come."

Despite Pierce’s optimism, the series opening split has to benefit the Bulls more than the Celtics.  The defending champs were supposed to steamroll their first round opponent en route to bigger matchups.  Instead, the Bulls now know they can compete with the ‘KG-less’ Celtics and head home even in the series.  Ben Gordon shared his thoughts:

"We got a split and that's tough to do against the defending champs.”

The Celtics did receive an emotional lift earlier in the day, as injured superstar Kevin Garnett and GM Danny Ainge were both in attendance at their shootaround.  Ainge was just released from the hospital following a mild heart attack. 

The teams will contest game three at the United Center in Chicago on Thursday night, with game four set for Sunday afternoon.  Game five will be back at the TD BankNorth Garden in Boston on Tuesday night.