Hinrich and Co. show they won't back down
With everything that happened in the final three quarters of the Bulls' 128-127 Game 6 victory Thursday night - not to mention the three overtimes - the Bulls showed they had the answer to a couple questions way back in the first quarter.
Did the Bulls have the toughness to stand up to a Boston team that won Game 5 in part because of a hard foul in the closing seconds?
And could the Bulls finally find a way to slow Rajon Rondo?
Make that a resounding yes to both.
Kirk Hinrich provided the answer to the first question, bringing an already charged 23,430 at the United Center into a frenzy with a first-quarter scuffle with Rondo.
Hinrich and Rondo got tangled going for a rebound. Hinrich boxed out Rondo all the way toward the Boston bench, and Rondo turned and flung Hinrich into the scorer's table.
Hinrich took exception, giving Rondo a hard shove. Hinrich got a technical on the play and Rondo was given a flagrant 1 foul.
"It was just a basic scuffle," Hinrich said. "I was just trying to box him out. I guess he thought I was doing too much so he grabbed my arm and threw me away. I went back and pushed him. I don't know who it was who came between us. It was one of those things you get caught up in the moment."
Rondo didn't seem to be the same the rest of the night, finishing 4 of 17 from the field. He had his potential game-winning shot blocked by Derrick Rose in the closing seconds of the third overtime.
"I knew something like that was going to come," Boston center Kendrick Perkins said. "They came out in their minds to grab, hold, do what they needed to do to get the win."
The scuffle wasn't Rondo's only problem Thursday. He entered averaging a triple double in the series - 24.2 points, 10.2 rebounds and 10.2 assists - and wasn't that far off from another with 8 points, 9 rebounds and 19 assists.
But that shooting (23.5 percent) was a far cry from the 51 percent he hit in the first five games.
In the fourth quarter, Rondo missed both his shots and both free throws, helping the Bulls rally from 99-91 down to force overtime.
After shooting just once in the fist two overtimes, Rondo missed 5 of his 6 shots in the third OT, including shots on Boston's final two possessions.
While Rondo had his first poor shooting game of the series, he did have an assist-to-turnover point guards dream of: 19 assists and 0 turnovers.
How Rondo felt about all that is a mystery. He left without speaking to the media.
"It's good for the fans, it's good for the viewers," Boston's Paul Pierce said. "It all boils down to Game 7. What more could you ask for, especially in this series?"