Bulls learn nothing from Celtics' no-show

At 5:55 p.m. Thursday, Derrick Rose walked from the floor back toward the Bulls' locker room, closely trailing Celtics coach Doc Rivers.

“I'm going that way,” Rivers said, laughing. “I'm going to your locker room and see what Thibs has written on the board.”

Rose laughed, too, but the fun didn't stop there.

Tom Thibodeau visited the Boston coaches even before Rivers went to the Bulls' side, old friends catching up and swapping good wishes.

Yeah, if you sense that the game billed as the biggest in the Eastern Conference this season didn't quite match that hype in the minds of Boston players and coaches, you'd be spot on.

Oh, the game was good enough, with Derrick Rose doing his Derrick Rose thing and the Bulls winning easy, 97-81, at the UC, but its effect on the No. 1 seed in the East was minimal even before the game tipped.

And the Celtics knew it.

They're merely trying to reach the postseason now without any new injuries, and then hoping the Big Four can turn it on one last time.

But you had the feeling that if David Stern didn't know 23,067 had paid to see it, the Celtics might not have played their starters at all, and they proved it once the game began by showing zero interest on defense and not much more than that on offense.

Even with a victory the Celtics had no reasonable chance to catch the Bulls with four games remaining, and Rivers as much as conceded the race before the game when he mentioned the Bulls' No. 1 seed on his list of Thibodeau's qualifications for Coach of the Year.

Knowing that, and aware that they'll likely face each other before the NBA playoffs conclude, neither coach was going to show the other any new wrinkles they might have planned for the postseason.

The only mildly interesting matchup was Thibodeau putting Carlos Boozer on Jermaine O'Neal or Glen Davis, and letting Joakim Noah guard Garnett, an assignment with which Boozer struggles.

It did get physical at times and Kurt Thomas did his best to stir the pot and serve notice that he'll be a pain in the green come playoff time.

Otherwise, the Bulls learned nothing from this game, especially since the Celtics without Shaquille O'Neal are not the Celtics that Rivers believes Chicago will see a few weeks from now.

“Win or lose tonight, was this our team?” Rivers asked. “It's not, so it wasn't going to tell us much about them, or tell them much about us.”

O'Neal is currently out with a calf injury, having missed 40 games with five different injuries this season, which doesn't sound exactly like a secret weapon come playoff time.

“I'm positive he'll be ready to start the playoffs,” Rivers said. “How long he'll be healthy and what he'll give us, nobody knows.”

Which always leads everyone back to the trade of Kendrick Perkins, and how the Celtics haven't been the same since.

“The Perk trade was more emotion,” Rivers said, refusing to concede the point. “We have a good record and we compiled that record without Perk (who was injured). We like our team if we're right.”

Thibodeau, who knows quite well Perkins' abilities from his days in Boston, didn't sound sorry to see him in the West.

“Perk was a great all-around player for them,” Thibodeau said. “He generated a lot of energy and offense for them. And with Garnett and Perkins on the floor together defensively, well, that's as good as it gets.”

But Thibodeau claims to believe the Celtics are far from done.

“I don't buy any of the stuff about them being old,” Thibodeau said. “They're the conference champs. Until someone knocks them off, they're the team to shoot for, the team to beat.”

Thursday they were far from it. And for as much as they bothered playing, the Celtics could have saved themselves the trip.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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