Celts-Bulls

After sleeping on it, I think the refs made the right call on Rondo in assessing him a flagrant 1 (although I still think he could have been tossed). He wasn't and finished with a pretty incredible game. He can't shoot (4-17) but 19 assists and nine boards and zero turnovers is impressive. Throw in Ray Allen's amazing output (his ball has so little backspin and I can't think of a great shooter with a similar shot) and it was a great game.

As for the greatness of the series, I am tempering my praise. There have been some great finishes, particularly, as Sir Charles pointed out last night, on the part of the Cs. It seems like Allen and Paul Pierce have made about 20 game-tying shots. But the one problem I really have is the Bulls blowing leads and their inability to finish. They should have won Game 2. They blew a 13-point lead in Game 5 and a ten-point lead last night.

Part of this is attributed to their youth. Derrick Rose had five turnovers last night and looked shakey down the stretch aside from his block on Rondo, one of the best game-saving blocks of all time. To recover like that takes a special player. The Bulls real problem is their coach. In Game 1, Vinny Del Negro ran out of timeouts. Ok, rookie coach. In Game 2, the same thing happened and it cost Chicago a chance to advance the ball and get a better game-ending shot.

I'm not sure that mattered so much considering the plays the Bulls run out of timeouts. There's no movement and too many times they end up going one on one with Gordon, Rose or Salmons taking contested shots. At the end of the second OT last night, they didn't even get a shot up with Brad Miller handling and losing the ball around half court. When Perkins fouled out, only once did they take the ball to the hole.

You notice these things when you're rooting for a team (I'm actually rooting against the Cs because I hate them). I'm certainly not the first to say it but Del Negro looks so over his head. If it wasn't for the clutch shots Gordon and Rose and last night Miller and Salmons have made, this series would have been over in five in favor of the Cs. It's no compliment to VDN that Bulls could have won this series in the same amount of games.