Bulls beat Celtics in 3 OTs, force Game 7

[May 01, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- One more thriller, and now, the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics will play a decisive seventh game.

Derrick Rose scored 28 points and blocked Rajon Rondo's potential game-winner, John Salmons scored 35, and the Bulls beat the defending champions 128-127 in triple overtime Thursday night to tie the first-round series at three games apiece.

Ray Allen scored a career playoff-high 51 points for the Celtics, but the series will go back to Boston for Game 7 on Saturday after another classic battle in a series that had already seen its share of drama.

Three of the first five games went to overtime, including one that needed two extra periods. Another came down to the wire in regulation, but this easily trumped them all.

Rondo penetrated and pulled up on the left block with 8 seconds left and turned, only to be rejected by Rose. The rookie of the year then missed two free throws with 3.2 seconds remaining, before Rondo launched a harmless heave from beyond midcourt.

That ended the game. The series, however, continues.

"This series is a lot of fun for the fans, the people of Chicago, the people of Boston," said the Bulls' Joakim Noah, who delivered the go-ahead three-point play after a steal. "It's a lot of fun for us, too, playing in environments like this on the big stage. It's special to be part of this, and I know that it's a series people will be talking about for a long time."

Rose added: "It's crazy, but you got to love it."

Tied at 123 in the third OT, Noah stole the ball and broke upcourt for a dunk, got fouled by Paul Pierce and hit the free throw with 35.5 seconds remaining. Eddie House quickly answered with a corner jumper, his feet on the 3-point arc, to pull the Celtics within 126-125, but Chicago's Brad Miller then hit two free throws to get the lead back up to three with 28 seconds left.

The Celtics weren't finished, though.

A driving Rondo put back his own miss to make it a one-point game, and then he got a break when Kirk Hinrich missed a layup with Rondo's hand in the cylinder -- which would have been goaltending. But the Bulls prevailed in the end.

Allen was simply spectacular for Boston, finishing three points shy of John Havlicek's club playoff record and tying the NBA playoff mark with nine 3-pointers.

"It's very bittersweet," Allen said. "There's nothing to really talk about anymore. We lost and we had the agony that it wasn't enough."

Glen Davis added 23 points and Pierce scored 22, but it was a difficult night for Rondo.

The Celtics' best player in the first five games, he had 19 assists and nine rebounds but scored just eight points and threw an elbow at Hinrich during a first-quarter skirmish. He also got serenaded by boos and derisive chants for his foul at the end of Game 5 that left a woozy Miller with a bloody mouth before missing two tying free throws.

This time, Salmons and Rose had plenty of help from Miller, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds. And now the Bulls are on the verge of knocking off the defending champions -- or going home.

The Celtics were leading 113-111 in the second OT after Davis scored with 3:49 left, but they went cold and the Bulls grabbed the lead.

Salmons responded with a 3-pointer to put Chicago ahead and made it a three-point game with a driving layup with two minutes left.

It stayed that way until Allen, his sneakers touching the arc, buried a jumper from the right corner that pulled Boston within 116-115 with 20 seconds remaining. Miller then hit two free throws, to make it a 3-point game, but Allen wasn't finished.

He dribbled to his left and buried a 3-pointer over Hinrich to tie it at 118 with 7.6 seconds left. After a timeout, Miller got the ball near midcourt but had trouble finding an open teammate as time expired.

Notes: Havlicek scored 54 in a playoff game against Atlanta on April 1, 1973. ... A landslide rookie of the year winner, Rose was a unanimous pick for the all-rookie team along with Memphis' O.J. Mayo by the league's coaches on Thursday. ... Although the NBA has a different view, Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro reiterated Thursday that Rondo should have been assessed a flagrant foul for his blow to Miller. ... Boston coach Doc Rivers played on a New York Knicks team in the 1990s that was known to commit a hard foul or two. So the comments about the physical play in Game 5 made him chuckle. Those Knicks, he said, "would laugh at this."

[Associated Press; By ANDREW SELIGMAN]

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