BOSTON — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 the game went into overtime.
“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 injured his right knee on Feb. 19 and played just 66 minutes, 18 seconds over the last 26 games as the Celtics tried to get him back in shape for the playoffs. But the team kept pushing back the date of his return — from the final three games, to the last two and then to one before Rivers shocked everyone on Thursday when he announced that Garnett wouldn’t be back in time for Saturday’s playoff opener and probably not at all.
Garnett hasn’t traveled with the team or been on the bench during his recovery, but Rivers and the players all said that it would be vital to have him out there to cheer them on. That lasted for 24 minutes of fist-pumping, ear-chewing and butt-slapping before Garnett decided he couldn’t take it any more.
“He was on the bench in the first half and we were down eight points. So this is about the players in uniform,” Rivers said. “Kevin is gone. And he ain’t coming back. The guys in the uniform have to play.”
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 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 unprecedented 17th NBA title. But now Boston has lost the home-court advantage that got it through the first two rounds last year.
Notes: Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, who suffered a mild heart attack on Thursday, was not at the game. His absence was acknowledged by an announcement and a big cheer from the crowd in the first quarter. … Bulls F John Salmons played with a sore groin. … The arena was quickly cleared so the Bull Gang could set up for Saturday night’s NHL playoff game between the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens…. No Chicago player has scored 36 points in a postseason game since Jordan retired.
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