Much to be forgotten on this night

An air of inevitability permeated the United Center early Monday night.Inevitably, the Bulls would beat Atlanta in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals.Inevitably, they would win the best-of-seven series.Oops!Atlanta recorded a 103-95 victory and suddenly owned homecourt advantage over the team with the league#146;s best regular-season record.The Bulls#146; loss was sealed well before star point guard Derrick Rose turned his ankle again on the game#146;s last play.#147;It#146;s fine,#148; Rose insisted. #147;I just took time walking off.#148;Anyway, that excuse for the series#146; next game didn#146;t materialize. The Bulls didn#146;t have one for this game, either.No, they didn#146;t unless it was that they simply forgot amid all the pregame hoopla that they had a basketball game to play.A lot of forgetting was happening on this night.In the wake of Osama bin Laden being killed, the Bulls brought in Jim Cornelison to sing his rousing rendition of the national anthem. Somebody must have forgotten that the Hawks are American too.Bulls management promoted a #147;See Red#148; campaign and fans filled the arena with the team#146;s color. Somebody must have forgotten that the Hawks#146; primary color also is red.Bulls#146; head coach Tom Thibodeau received his Coach of the Year trophy and responded to cheers with a whirling 360-degree wave. His players must have forgotten to listen to their award-winning coaching.Let#146;s face it: The Bulls were supposed to be in control of this game as early as when bomb-sniffing police dogs were finished inspecting their locker room hours before tipoff.OK, if not then, then at least before Cornelison had sung, #147;Oh, say can you see ...#148; and the cheers rang down from the stands.Instead the Hawks jumped up early, often and decisively, and Thibodeau could only moan, #147;Our intensity wasn#146;t right,#148;Oh yeah, one more thing was forgotten: Nobody told the basketball that the Bulls were supposed to win. Shots kept falling for Atlanta. All sorts of crazy shots. Fallaway 3-point shots. Rainbow jump shots. Shot after shot.Atlanta is one of those teams that when its players let fly a coach#146;s response must be, #147;No, no ... yes!#148;At various junctures in any given game, the Hawks look like they#146;re playing horse and daring the opposition to match them.The Bulls couldn#146;t, shooting 45 percent from the field to 51 percent for Atlanta.Rose scored 24 points on 27 shots (making 11). Meanwhile, the Hawks#146; Joe Johnson scored 34 points on only 18 shots (making 12).#147;Joe was big tonight,#148; Atlanta coach Larry Drew said. #147;He was in an attack mode.#148;So were Johnson#146;s teammates. They just kept attacking, from beginning to end, sometimes mindlessly it seemed.#147;Once they have that lead and got their confidence,#148; Thibodeau said, #147;they are hard to slow down.#148;So, now the Bulls must not forget that nothing in Wednesday night#146;s Game 2 is inevitable, nor is anything the rest of the series inevitable.Rose said when asked whether this loss was a wake-up call, #147;I hope so. I just hope we don#146;t wake up too late and that we#146;re ready for the next game.#148;They might be if they don#146;t forget nothing is inevitable in the NBA playoffs.mimrem@dailyherald.com