Del Negro defends use of timeouts
When Boston's Paul Pierce missed a potential go-ahead free throw with 2.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter on Saturday, the Bulls had no timeouts left to set up a final shot. It ended up not mattering as the Bulls went on to win Game 1 of the first-round playoff series in overtime.
But in Game 2 on Monday, it did matter.
After Ray Allen sent the Celtics ahead 118-115 by draining a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left, the Bulls didn't have a timeout to advance the ball to half-court. Tyrus Thomas ended up missing the rim with a 50-foot shot.
Sinking a tying 3-pointer within two seconds isn't easy, but it has been done. Following a film session Tuesday at the Berto Center, coach Vinny Del Negro defended his clock management.
His argument was if he hadn't used the earlier timeouts, the Bulls might not have been in position to tie the game at the very end.
"You always want to try and keep a timeout, but you always want to try to keep yourself in the game," Del Negro said. "We get the ball with 20 seconds to go and we're down 2, I want to make sure we get a good shot and have an opportunity to tie. Because if we don't execute well and set something up - especially with a young team - then they're shooting free throws and the game's probably over."
NBA teams get six timeouts per game and a 20-second timeout per half. But they can use just three full timeouts in the fourth quarter. According to league rules, if a team reaches the two-minute mark of the fourth quarter with three full timeouts remaining, they turn into one full and one 20-second timeout.
That's what happened to the Bulls in Game 2, but they also had their second-half 20-second timeout left. So they stopped the clock at 1:54, 1:01 and 20.1 seconds. After all three timeouts, Ben Gordon knocked down a jumper on his way to 42 points.
"People are going to second guess and first guess. So what? I don't care," Del Negro said. "They can guess. I'm the coach. I'm going to make the decisions."
Del Negro said the plan was to get it to Derrick Rose after Allen hit the go-ahead jumper, but the Celtics took that away.
"We definitely wished we would have reserved one of those timeouts," said Gordon, who was on the bench for a defensive switch at the end of Game 2. "But that's how the game went. It's a thing of the past though."
Powe out for playoffs: The Celtics received more bad news Tuesday. Backup power forward Leon Powe is out for the rest of the playoffs with a torn ACL in his left knee. He suffered the injury late in the first half of Game 2 on a drive to the basket.
Powe averaged 7.7 points and 4.9 rebounds this season, but missed about a month after injuring his other knee against the Bulls on March 17.
Scene shifts: The Bulls are hoping for an electric atmosphere at the United Center for Thursday's Game 3 and are encouraging all fans to wear red. Tickets for Thursday's contest at the United Center are labeled: Round 1, Home Game A.
"It's going to be crazy," Ben Gordon said. "Everybody's going to be wearing red, hopefully, and it's going to be a wild house."