Around the USA: Great, but not the greatest

BOSTON -- It's fair to wonder if there's an encore to this, if the six weeks remaining in the NBA playoffs will have anything remotely as thrilling as the seven-game series the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics just concluded.

One wouldn't think the high note of the 2009 postseason has already sounded. But when a single series has four overtime games, another game decided at the buzzer, 65 ties, more than 120 lead changes and an unthinkable number of improbable shots taken and made, it becomes entirely possible that a series played in the very first round will not be eclipsed ... even by Kobe and LeBron, should they face each other in the Finals.

Okay, the Celtics' 109-99 Game 7 victory on Saturday night was downright lopsided compared to the rest of the series, even though with 25 seconds left the Bulls were one made three-pointer from being in position to force yet another overtime. Otherwise, it absolutely was that compelling a round of basketball, historically speaking as well. By the time the Bulls and Celtics had played their unprecedented third overtime game of the series, people were wondering openly whether the two teams were producing the best opening-round series in the history of the league. After a triple-overtime Game 6 in Chicago, the talk was whether it was the greatest series ever ... of any kind, in any round.

Celtics Coach Doc Rivers was about the only person connected with the series who couldn't see how it had seduced basketball fans everywhere. "I didn't see 'great,' " Rivers said, "I saw 'hard.' I'm serious, that's what I saw; 'difficult' ... but not 'great.' "

But Rivers, who grew up in Chicago idolizing Bulls stars of the 1970s, such as Jerry Sloan and Norm Van Lier, walked into his office about an hour after Game 7, where his brother Grady told him what everybody else had seen and felt. "My brother told me I need to sit down this summer, turn on the DVR and watch the whole thing with a couple of my boys," Doc Rivers said, smiling. "I guess I'll have to take him up on that."

Most people, even hardcore hoops junkies, now agree that Bulls-Celtics is the greatest first-round series in league history. But best series ever? No. There simply wasn't enough at stake. And posing the question means people, as we tend to do these days, have forgotten or don't know about too many great series. The recently retired Jalen Rose, now working as an analyst for ESPN, tag-teamed with ESPN's ace researcher Lisa Brooks the other night because Rose was convinced people were overlooking too many great basketball series, such as ...

-- The 1981 Eastern Conference tinals between the Celtics and 76ers that produced five games decided by one or two points, including the Celtics' three consecutive wins after coming from a three-games-to-one deficit to win the series. The Celtics, led by Larry Bird's late bank shot, won Game 7 by a single point.

-- The 1987 Eastern Conference finals between the Celtics and Pistons when "Bird stole the ball" from Isiah Thomas to win Game 5 in a series Boston won in seven.

-- The 1984 NBA Finals made famous by Kevin McHale's horse-collar tackle of the Lakers' Kurt Rambis.

-- The 1970 NBA Finals between the Knicks and Lakers that included Jerry West's half-court shot that sent Game 3 into overtime. Game 4 also went into overtime. And of course there was Willis Reed dragging himself out of the locker room to hit the first two baskets of Game 7, which might just be the most revered game and inspirational story in league history.

The Lakers were also involved in the most riveting series I've ever covered: the Western Conference Final in 2002 between the Kings and Lakers, the one that produced Robert Horry's prayer of a shot to win Game 4 that prevented the Lakers from going down 3-1, and ended in a Lakers overtime victory in Game 7 in Sacramento. The officiating was so controversial in that game, it became the subject of a second controversy last summer when disgraced ref Tim Donaghy offered it up as evidence of impropriety in an effort to help himself in his defense against gambling charges.

Wherever you place Bulls-Celtics on the greatness spectrum, it's surely at the opposite end of the Atlanta-Miami series, which produced the least entertaining seven-game series in modern time. Each of the seven games was decided by 10 points or more, including Atlanta's blowout victory in Game 7. The average margin in the series was 19 points. And worst of all, it doesn't appear that the Hawks will do anything to slow LeBron James and the Cavaliers, even though Cleveland figures to be rusty after nine days off. Even so, the Hawks will be counted out about as quickly as Ricky Hatton.

Boston's problem will be just the opposite Monday night when the Celtics play Orlando in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal. Rivers not only has to coach the champs differently than he did last year, when defense was the team's calling card. Injuries to Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe have made that mandatory, and now Rivers has to base most of his rotation pattern on offensive planning, meaning more of Eddie House and Brian Scalabrine, two guys who led the way Saturday night against the Bulls.

That won't necessarily help the Celtics figure out what to do against Dwight Howard down low, or Rashard Lewis, who will be a matchup nightmare for Glen Davis. On the other hand, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce know they're going to get an Orlando backcourt light on pressure.

The Nuggets and Lakers are on a collision course in the west, and the biggest suspense of the rest of the playoffs might be whether Shane Battier and Ron Artest can push Kobe Bryant to such a degree that the Rockets can make it difficult on the Lakers. But even those of us who think the Rockets, now that they're past the pressure of getting out of the first round, can annoy Kobe and Phil Jackson more than any remaining team, don't see four overtimes, seven overtime periods and six tight games in a seven-game series. We'll have to settle for great performances, like the one Nene turned in Sunday in Denver's Game 1 victory over Dallas, and recalibrate what constitutes high basketball drama.

Michael Wilbon is a columnist with The Washington Post.

(May 4, 2009)