Joakim Noah looked as if he were somewhere between desolation and catatonia.
Bulls reserve Anthony Roberson was talking almost nonstop to Noah, offering words of consolation, but the normally high-energy center was having none of it. He sat slumped and unresponsive in his stall in the Bulls’ locker room, a towel and a storm cloud hanging over his head.
The Bulls had just dropped Game 7 109-99 to Boston, ending an insanely competitive playoff series. They had fought long — very, very long — and they looked as used up as the tape and the socks and the uniforms that were strewn around the room.
“It just hurts,” Noah finally said to a questioner.
Whether it was fatigue or brain lock, the second quarter did in the Bulls, which did not at all fit with the theme of this series. Four of these games were decided in at least one overtime. For most of the series, the second quarter was a requirement, something that needed to be done.
“I don’t know if it was a lot of the guys never having been in a Game 7 before and kind of let the moment get to us,” guard Kirk Hinrich said. “We did some things we hadn’t done all series. It ultimately cost us.”
They had built up a 10-point lead in that ill-fated second quarter. Things were looking good. Hope was alive and kicking. By the time it was over, they had thrown the ball away nine times in the quarter. The Celtics had come roaring back and led 52-38 at halftime.
“We didn’t compete the way we should for one quarter, and that was the difference,” Noah said. “It wasn’t even one quarter. I think it was like a six-, seven-minute stretch.”
The Bulls didn’t score a basket for eight minutes in the second.
“We turned into the Celtics again,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “Really. We started playing defense.”
The Bulls did pull within four points late in the game, but it was as if the Ghost of Second Quarter Past haunted them. They could never quite get over the hump, could never really force the Celtics to have an “uh-oh” moment. The Bulls simply never came roaring back. They walked back tentatively, and it wasn’t enough.
This game didn’t meet the heart-attack threshold that many of the other games in this series did. There was something missing, which you had to figure was coming. There was no way it could live up to Game 6, a three-overtime affair that seemed to take a lot out of both teams. John Salmons, so good in that victory, shot 3 of 12 from the floor and finished with 12 points Saturday night.
The Bulls had answered the Celtics so many times this series, in the same way that Boston had answered each Chicago spurt. So when the Bulls cut the Boston lead to four points in the fourth quarter, there was the thought that maybe it was time for more magic. But magic needs energy, and the Bulls had run out of it.
Too bad. It was a good ride.
“So many great moments,” said Ben Gordon, who shot 7 of 23 from the floor Saturday. “The way we fought as a team, we never gave up.”
Going into the game, there had seemed a very good chance they could keep playing within a point or two of each other for infinity.
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 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.
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 fatigue? 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 would have been enough to get the job done.
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rmorrissey@tribune.com
