Who will be the Bulls' Game 7 'Hero'?
So many heroes have emerged in the Bulls-Celtics first-round NBA playoff series that we thought it would be fun to match up players with the TV show "Heroes" as the teams get ready for Game 7 tonight.
Who will emerge as tonight's Hero and will their superpowers continue?
• Introducing Brad Miller as "Hiro." The only explanation for Miller being so wide open at the end of Game 5 and the end of regulation of Game 6 is that he is stopping time. No way a big, lumbering center can have so much space around him without halting the time-space continuum.
• Rajon Rondo as "Daphne." Faster than a speeding bullet, a whir of light and no sound, Rondo looks like the blonde phenom streaking past unsuspecting and clueless Bulls defenders.
• Ben Gordon as "Niki Sanders." Gordon, the man with ice water in his veins who buried that improbable 3-pointer in Game 4, must be channeling his power from the woman who can freeze a man on sight.
• Paul Pierce as "Agent Danko." Which side is Danko on, anyway? It's kind of like that with Pierce: One minute you don't mind if the ball's in his hands (end of Game 2 when he missed a critical free throw), but then he's ripping your heart out (end of Game 5 when he drilled a game-sealing OT jumper).
• Derrick Rose as "Ando." Hiro's sidekick, Ando, just added a supercharger power where he can ramp up other heroes' powers. Rose does just this with his teammates, although, like Ando, Rose is still learning how to best use his power.
• Joakim Noah as "Micah." Micah was "Rebel" this season, which seems to fit Noah perfectly.
• Doc Rivers as "Matthew Parkman." Rivers has an uncanny ability of sending his players to the right places for open shots at critical times of the game. It's almost as if he's saying to the Bulls, "You will not stay with Ray Allen. You will not foul Ray Allen. You will allow him to shoot the ball."
• And finally, Ray Allen as "Sylar." Just when you think that piece of metal has been stuck in the Celtics' brain and they're dead, Allen rises off the floor, takes the ball and buries a 3-pointer. Sylar and Allen - two guys fans are dying to see vanish into thin air.