Bulls v. Celtics
Noah celebrates after his amazing steal and dunk (and 1), forcing Game 7.
What a first round series -- almost every game has been excellent!
I love when the better team wins, rather than when one team underperforms and throws the game away. As Charles Barkley keeps saying, everyone has been fantastic.
I do find it odd, though, that little has been made of the divergent paths that allowed the teams to be dead even at this point. Boston lost KG, knocking them down into "beatable" range. Meanwhile, the Bulls lost star small forward Luol Deng for the year, almost killing Chicago's playoff chances. The Kings, however, bailed the Bulls out by taking on expiring contracts (aka a bag o' chips) in exchange for Miller and Salmons. Luckily for Chicago, the Kings are owned by the Maloof brothers, who are heavily invested in Vegas. As Vegas is hemorrhaging money right now, the brothers Maloof needed to dump salary (despite Sacramento fans' consistent dedication, leading to sellouts even in years like this one, when the team stinks). It's the equivalent of the Lakers getting Gasol last year, in exchange for the rights for to Gasol's little brother (aka another bag o' chips).
Christine's exact words, at the time of Tony Allen's foul on Ben Gordon in Game 5 (I think): "What the hell is he doing? That guy is f*****g up my s**t!" She does love her some playoff basketball. KG would be proud of her spontaneous Tourette's.
The Sports Guy wrote a nice column on Game 6 (and the whole series) today. Unfortunately for us, C and I planned an early Mother's Day dinner with her parents... for tomorrow night, at tip-off. Doh!