Bulls v. Celtics, Game 7, Second Quarter

The worst minutes of any NBA game are the first four minutes of the second quarter; it's where you get your deep bench players and exceptional sloppiness. Will this game follow the same script? Gordon owns Marbury with a 3, and he's got 15 now. Rivers puts Davis back in; risky. Gordon over Marbury again, and the only way he's missing against Marbury is from drooling too much. Scalabrine's second three keeps this back to 6. Salmons picks up his second on a driving foul, and he's pulled for Rose. Marbury takes a wide open jumper and misses it. Miller misses from good ball movement. Davis gets free on a pick and roll and gets an easy lay up; it's 32-28.

Gordon actually misses. Thomas blocks Davis, and Hinrich gets Scalabrine's third foul on a drive, a call that Boston Fan disputes, but that the big redhead does not. When Brian Scalabrine's foul trouble is a concern, you are not possessing a lot of front court depth. He leaves for Perkins, and after two more Hinrich makes, the Bulls are 11 for 11 from the line, and lead by six.

JoNo steal; he's in for Miller. Rose misses over Marbury, a good look. Allen gets to the rack awkwardly and scores in traffic. Thomas makes over Davis, and that seems significant. 36-30, Bulls. Perkins rolls to the rim and scores with more offensive agility then he's ever shown before this series. House steals from Thomas in traffic; Pierce can't score from in tight, but he gets the call against Thomas. He makes both and it's a two-point game, and this game hasn't disappointed for overall play.

Good defensive stop from the Celtics, and it's a shot clock violation. 6:30 left, and Davis dunks off a Perkins pass for the 36-all tie. House turns JoNo for the Bulls' fourth second quarter giveaway. del Negro brings in Miller for Thomas to try to stop the turnovers. Rose misses a step-back. Davis misses from a Miller block, but the sloppiness continues on the other end, and we go to commerce still tied. No denying that the Celtics are getting their legs under them with inside scoring, and that the Bulls aren't really scoring outside of Gordon.

Gordon doesn't get a call on a terrible no-call from the ref on what would have been Davis's third, and House hits a three in transition. Rose misses, and Pierce converts for an 11-0 Celtics run. Miller calmly pump-fakes Perkins and gets to the line, but he misses the first, the first Bulls miss of the night from the stripe. The second is good, and it's 41-37. House hits again, and that's a major worry for the Bulls, from the arc. Rose misses in traffic, no calls tonight for him, but Pierce turns it in half court, and Rose finds Salmons, who draws Perkins second. The Celtics' bigs now have 2, 2 and 3 (there has been some suspicious switching), and Salmons misses the second. Perkins over Noah, and he now has 8 and 8. The Bulls call a timeout, and the inside offense has led to an 8-point Celtics lead, their biggest of the game.

Gordon misses out of the time out. Pierce misses in tight, and Salmons is whistled for his third foul. It's 23-11 this quarter, 12-0 in the paint. Davis misses, and Perkins picks up his third foul, terribly dumb push off on Miller that the older vet sold well. Mikki Moore in for Perkins. Rondo forces yet another turnover. Pierce picks up Rose's first foul as the game gets draggy. Pierce has a nosebleed; quick, get the wheelchair!

Davis misses from outside. Miller drives ugly, and picks up the charge. Nothing looking right or easy for the visitors right now. Pierce spins and gets to the cup, but the ball is spiked loose. Allen gets it down low, blocked, recovers, blocked, and Moore converts the garbage. Hinrich turns, the Bulls' 8th of the quarter, and this is the way that people thought the series would go originally -- the Bulls getting munched by the Celtics' defense, especially in the half court. Moore hits both, and it's a 12-point game. Where's the super drama game we were promised? 20-2 Celtics run. Rondo steal off Miller, and it's hard to tell how much of this is good defense against bad offense. del Negro calls another timeout to try to keep this in reach, but most of the second quarter has just been a nightmare for them.

Hinrich gets a cheap call as Celtics Fan sings off-color; the refs review it, because that's just what happens; Hinrich then follows it up with two misses. Yeesh. Rondo with an easy drive for his first hoop, and it's Coronation Time for the defending champs, as Rondo blocks Rose, Hinrich misses from distance, and it's 52-38 at the half. We're 24 minutes away from this ending with a whimper. More later.