I understand that he is a gun. I really do. When he jump stops into a transition 3 and a hand in his face, I have screamed and then cheered when it went in. But seriously. An open, but off-balanced jumper from at least 17 feet, at an odd angle with 9 seconds left in the quarter? You go from being (more or less) in control of the outcome of the game, to possibly giving the other team the last possession. Even if it goes in, you can still lose (admittedly Allen was out, but I dont think BG was thinking about that). I was screaming at Vinny to take a timeout when they cut the lead to 6, then Allen hits an open 3, and boom, we go from having the closeout game in Chicago following a reasonably solid win, to an awful loss, bad blood between the teams, and a referee crisis. I think this shot completely defines BG, and why he is (to me) more like J.R. Smith than people realize. Look at his stats a little, and you see BG’s PER is 1 pt higher, their TS % is about the same, Gordon’s 3pt % is 1.5% higher, but they seem to be the same player in somewhat different situations. MAYBE J.R. has the option of being a better defensive player with Chauncey around, but BG is too small anyway. He is 3 years younger, and his biggest issue has been maturity. (He is also not looking for 60 mil on his next contract) Just my 2 cents, apologies if this isn’t clearly written, but wrote this in the middle of MY Clark Kent job. -Sigh-, if only I had a superman existence.

Belize — It sure did. Especially since (if we’re talking about the same play) Rondo rode Rose to the floor with a hand on his hip. It sucked, because the refs had just called Rajon for the bump when Derrick drove right, so they must have felt they needed to let it go when Rose drove left. But damn, Rondo pushed him down. It was pretty obvious. Derrick didn’t trip.

chone — You don’t think they can win Game 6 at the United Center? Really?

Nicky C — It was a huge no-call. Plus, as Henry Abbott pointed out on TrueHoop, had the flagrant been called, Vinny could have chosen another player to shoot those ‘throws. I’m pretty sure Gordon or Salmons would have knocked them down. This situation is kicking up a lost of dust right now. It’s kind of funny that Henry noted the pretty good officiating so far in these playoffs…and then there were two major no-calls (including Dwight Howard’s whiff on an elbow smash) that totally affected the outcome of two critical games. Henry with the stat curse!

AK Dave — Yeah, the Bulls definitely got nervous with that lead. Rose became very tentative, and lost a lot of his aggressiveness going to the basket. Maybe that’s because the refs had started letting the in-the-paint contact go a little. Salmons drove to the cup three or four times, got hit, didn’t get the call. Plus, give it up to the C’s, they made some great defensive adjustments to keep Derrick out of the lane. But, like you said, there was a stretch there where nobody wanted to grab the game and make it theirs.

Jason — I’m sorry, but I have to disagree. I don’t really care where Rondon’s eyes were at, the only thing that matters is where his semi-closed hand was at, and that was upside Miller’s head. All I ever expect from NBA officiating is consistency. Blows to the head that are nowhere near the ball are considered flagrants. Have been all season long. Last season too. That’s the state of the game.

Mike C — Hey! That’s what I said!

JM — You’re exactly right, my friend. I actually talked about that in my follow-up post. I understand that letting Salmons guard Pierce one-on-one had worked to that point, but Vinny basically conceded the shots that Paul Pierce has made a career off of. He was going to start hitting them at some point, unless Salmons got some defensive help. Which he didn’t.

Pete — I totally agree about Rose. It’s stunning that someone so fast and athletic can’t stay in front of his man. I’m not saying Hinrich would have shut Rondo down, but he would have at least slowed him a little. Rondo versus Rose is like Rondo versus and empty gym. And to make matters worse, Derrick wasn’t going right back at Rondo. If you can’t stop him, Derrick, at least make him play defense.

Also, you said: “for the love of the right elbow, why didn’t Salmons force Pierce to the other side of the floor? Why let your man go to his sweet spot three times in a row?” Seriously. John and Vinny (based on whatever defensive instructions he handed out) let Pierce have his favorite shots…over and over…in a critical game that was theirs for the taking. I mean, Defense 101 says, “If you have to give up a shot, make sure it’s not the shot that player wants.”

Alec — Yeah. Ben. He’s…a gun. A gun that can be deadly accurate but goes off all the time. All I can say is the authorities should probably check Gordon’s back yard for bodies, because the man has no conscience.

Victor — Yup. Like I said above, all I want is consistency. The head shot has been pretty much outlawed in the NBA. That’s not a new thing. Not sure how the officials bungled this one. They even reviewed it!

Maybe I’m biased because I hate how slow and goofy Brad Miller is, but I don’t want to see him play in the fourth quarter anymore. If Ty Thomas gets the ball in that situation, he’s slamming the ball in their throats – no questions asked. And if they foul him, they definitely call a flagrant because Boston knows that he’d go to slam the ball down their throats. Oh yeah, him and Noah on the floor put two athletic bigs to potentially pull down rebounds and/or block shots into outer space.

Rose’s defense is virtually non-existant and he played far too passively all night long. Rondo is looking like the second coming of the Big O out there and it’s making me sick. And for the love of the right elbow, why didn’t Salmons force Pierce to the other side of the floor? Why let your man go to his sweet spot three times in a row? And can anyone stop that goofy bastard Glen Davis? He’s putting up about 20 a game against the Bulls like it’s nothing…

I believe the general opinion is that the Celtics should have made short work of the Bulls and that the Bulls are only postponing the inevitable first round exit, but I firmly believe that the Bulls are the better team. Except for game 3, the Bulls should have won all of the other games but brain farts prevented them from sealing the deal.

I am so far beyond angry…that’s all for now.

One other mistake was playing Ben Gordon 50+ minutes. He was hurt and shot 4 of 20 or so, and just kept shooting. I know VDN didn’t want him to come out and tighten up, but a healthy Lindsey Hunter would have been better (and played much better defense) than a hurt Gordon. The coaching decisions in that game really made me mad, because the Bulls outplayed the Celtics and should have won easily.