BOSTON — The explanation for the nail-biting closeness of this series finally arrived early in the second quarter, and you wondered why it hadn’t occurred to you earlier:
Both teams suffer from separation anxiety! That was it! If either the Bulls or the Celtics built a significant lead, both felt empty and disoriented. And so they sought the safety of togetherness. That’s why four of the first six playoffs games had gone into overtime.
And there was a very good chance they could keep playing within a point or two of each other for infinity.
The Bulls had answered the Celtics so many times this series, in the same way that Boston had answered each Chicago spurt. And so here the Bulls were in the fourth quarter of Game 7 Saturday night hanging around and hanging around some more. Loitering, really. The Bulls had crept back from 14 points down at halftime and cut the Boston lead to four.
How would they respond? The answer was a 109-99 Bulls loss.
The Celtics kept trying to keep the Bulls in this one. With 5 minutes 44 seconds left in the game, the officials ruled that a Ben Gordon two-point basket in the first half was actually a three-pointer, and the scoreboard reflected the change: It was 89-84 Boston instead of a six-point lead.
Turnovers, missed free throws — the Celtics certainly were being helpful.
But the Bulls had turnovers and errant shots, too. This was no time for politeness.
The first real challenge was presented to the Bulls toward the end of the second quarter. Leading 46-38, the Celtics had put some distance between themselves and the Bulls. In one sequence, Ray Allen took three inside shots, got the rebound twice and had another blocked. But Mikki Moore scored on the put-back to raise the lead to 10 points.
When the halftime horn sounded, it was 52-38.
What had happened to the Bulls? Brad Miller and Joakim Noah were not providing the spark they had in previous games. Both ended up fouling out.
Neither team was exactly crisp in the first half, which is a kind way of saying they couldn’t shoot. Was that nerves or good defense or simply bad shooting? I’ll go with Door 3. The Celtics shot 34.6 percent in the first quarter. The Bulls shot 33.3 percent in the first half. One team adjusted, the other didn’t. The Celtics moved the ball around, the Bulls didn’t. Gordon and Derrick Rose provided the only consistent offense. The Bulls had 11 turnovers and six assists at halftime. Very hard to win like that.
“We’re going to have to play the best game of the series,” Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro had said before the game.
Well, no. As it turned out, they didn’t need their best to win this. Simply being good apparently was going to be enough to get the job done.
“Get ready to play, fight, battle, do what you have to do,” Del Negro had said.
This, the Bulls did. In the third quarter, Noah fouled Rajon Rondo hard as the Celtics guard drove to the basket. Rondo went down as if he had been shot. A few moments later, Miller fouled Rondo hard. It looked as if both Miller and Noah had gotten the revenge-on-Rondo memo for his Game 5 and Game 6 transgressions.
Del Negro said one other thing before the game that was put into focus during the game.
“These guys have been resilient all year,” he said of his Bulls.
Would they be? Would they find a way?
When Paul Pierce hit the first shot of the game and Gordon followed with a three-pointer for the Bulls, it was as if Game 7 was simply a continuation of Game 6 after a long timeout. The TD Banknorth Garden (such a romantic name) was rocking.
In that way, this series has been an eye-opener for Rose. He expected Game 7 to be much louder than when he played in the 2008 NCAA championship game for Memphis. It probably was.
Be that as it may, Rose and the Bulls seemed deaf to whatever the Garden threw at them Saturday. Once you’ve been through four overtime games, not a whole lot would seem to faze you.
Actually one thing would have, had it happened. For two days, fans and media members had talked about the possibility of Kevin Garnett pulling a Willis Reed and walking onto the floor for Game 7. Didn’t happen. Garnett was wearing a suit and tie on the Celtics’ bench.
“I thought someone was going to report they saw Bigfoot and Sasquatch,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
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Big number
0: That’s how many Game 7 victories the Bulls have posted in six road games in franchise history.
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rmorrissey@tribune.com
