By Jimmy Golen
Associated Press
BOSTON ó Derrick Rose had a playoff debut like few others and led the Chicago Bulls to a victory over the Boston Celtics in the playoffs.
Not even Michael Jordan did that.
Rose matched Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record with 36 points in his playoff debut, adding 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 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 tonight, to say the least.”
Game 2 is Monday, the anniversary of the 1986 playoff game when Jordan scored 63 points against Boston ó in a Bulls loss. In fact, 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 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’ve better come to play.”
Tyrus Thomas scored 16 points ó making six of Chicago’s eight points in overtime, including the game-winning jumper with 51 seconds left in overtime. Joakim Noah, who was 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 scored 29 points with nine rebounds and seven assists for Boston, which was without Kevin Garnett and didn’t get what it needed from the rest of the Big Three, either.
Paul Pierce scored 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting, but missed the potential game-winning free throw at the end of regulation and had a potential game-tying basket blocked by John Salmons with 3.7 seconds left in overtime. Ray Allen, who scored four points on 1-for-12 shooting, had a chance to send it into a second overtime 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’ tonight. 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.”
Too hurt to play and too frustrated to watch, 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 ó who missed four crucial foul shots down the stretch when Memphis lost the NCAA championship game last year ó 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 the game went into overtime.