Not even Michael Jordan did that.
Rose matched Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record with 36 points in his playoff debut and added 11 assists to lead the Bulls to a 105-103 overtime victory over the defending NBA champions in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round Eastern Conference series.
Playoff experience?
“He doesn’t need it,” Bulls guard Ben Gordon said. “He’s poised beyond his years. He already carries himself like a veteran out there. He had a phenomenal game, to say the least.”
Game 2 is Monday, the anniversary of the 1986 playoff game when Jordan scored 63 points against Boston - in a Bulls double-overtime loss. Chicago had not beaten the Celtics in 10 postseason games since the Chicago Stags beat Boston in the 1948 Basketball Association of America quarterfinals.
“I hope this is a wake-up call,” said Boston star Paul Pierce, who scored 23 points. “I hope we realize that the Bulls, they’re not just a team that’s happy to be in the playoffs. So hopefully the guys will wake up and realize this is reality. We better come to play.”
Tyrus Thomas scored 16 - making six of Chicago’s eight points in overtime, including the game-winning jumper with 51 seconds left in overtime. Joakim Noah, also making his postseason debut, scored 11 with 17 rebounds for the Bulls as they wrested the home-court advantage from Boston.
“As the games go on, the moments get bigger,” Chicago coach Vinny Del Negro said. “I feel like the guys have taken a big step forward, and we know we have a huge challenge in front of us. We’ll enjoy this one for a minute, and then get back to work.”
Rajon Rondo had 29 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for Boston, which was without injured star Kevin Garnett and didn’t get what it needed from the rest of the Big Three, either.
Pierce shot just 8-of-21 and missed the potential game-winning free throw at the end of regulation, then had a potential game-tying basket blocked by John Salmons with 3.7 seconds left in overtime.
Ray Allen, who scored only four points on 1-for-12 shooting, had a chance to send it into a second OT but his jumper from the right side bounced off the back of the rim.
“It just looked like everybody decided that they were going to be ‘the guy.’ They were going to, you know, replace Kevin for whatever reason,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “And then all of a sudden we got into a fight. And one thing I’d say about our guys, they join in. But, at home, you’re supposed to start it.”
Garnett took refuge in the locker room after the first half while his teammates rallied from an 11-point deficit. Rondo hit a short jumper over Noah in the lane to give the Celtics a 96-95 lead, but Rose - who missed four crucial foul shots down the stretch when Memphis lost the NCAA championship game last year - put Chicago ahead on two free throws with 9.4 seconds left in regulation.
Noah fouled Pierce with 2.6 seconds left, but after tying it 97-all with his first free throw the Celtics captain missed the second and it went to OT.
“That was a big miss,” Gordon said. “If he makes it I think we need a miraculous shot because we were out of timeouts.”
Garnett had to watch on TV as Rose hit a hanging jumper in the lane to give the Bulls a 55-44 lead before Boston cut the lead to four points and, with an 8-0 run later in the third, take a 68-67 lead on Rondo’s 3-pointer with four minutes left in the quarter.
With the loss at home, the Celtics showed they are in for a long road - and probably a short stay in the playoffs - without Garnett. As the No. 2 seed in the East, a team that has two All-Stars and won 62 games, Boston was expected to advance to the conference finals and a potential matchup with Cleveland.
On the other hand, the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks took the Celtics to seven games in the first round last year, and that proved to be a mere speed bump en route to their NBA-record 17th title. But now Boston has lost the home-court advantage that got it through the first two rounds last year.
