Celtics blow out Bulls to close out a series overshadowed by one big 'what if'

Many NBA playoff series end as they begin. The first-round matchup between the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls didn’t. In fact, it did just the opposite. And that’s a shame.

Just nine days after the Bulls jetted back home up 2-0, nine days after the Celtics looked thoroughly inferior in a Game 2 defeat, and nine days after talk of an 8-over-1 upset crescendoed, the series between the Celtics and Bulls instead ended with a whimper. It ended with a 105-83 Boston victory in front of a lifeless crowd in Chicago. It ended without any semblance of a fight from the depleted Bulls. It ended without any intrigue whatsoever.

Perhaps the ominously silent crowd, only half of which had settled into United Center seats by tipoff, told the story better than anything else. Squeaks and shouts from the court could be heard loud and clear on the TV broadcast. Smatterings of applause reluctantly accompanied every Bulls bucket. Groans, however, were more plentiful. And then boos, which first arose in the third quarter, when Boston extended a 13-point halftime lead into a whopping 29-point advantage heading into the fourth.

The Bulls’ performance mirrored their fans’ unenthusiastic display. Chicago’s close-outs were lethargic, and were exposed by the Celtics, who hit 16 of their 39 3-pointers. Dwyane Wade was ineffective, then injured. A banged-up Jimmy Butler didn’t get any help. And Chicago’s third alpha … well, he’s as big a reason as any that the series petered out into a snoozer.

Rajon Rondo and his broken thumb are also the subject of the two words that hang over the series: What if.

What if? What if Rondo’s thumb had stayed intact? What if the same team that had won Games 1 and 2 on the road had taken the floor in Games 3 through 6? Or perhaps 3 through 7?

The Bulls may or may not have won the series. The Celtics may or may not have responded like they did in Game 3. Both teams may or may not have returned to their regular-season form. It’s impossible to know.

But the Bulls sure as heck would have at least made it a series. They sure as heck wouldn’t have let this happen. A lineup of Michael Carter-Williams, Denzel Valentine, Paul Zipser, Joffrey Lauvergne and Bobby Portis sure as heck wouldn’t have been in the game at the start of a fourth quarter that was 12 minutes of garbage time. Isaiah Thomas sure as heck wouldn’t have been able to gather his team on the baseline in the third and yell, “that’s a wrap for these motherf——!”

Boston didn’t trail all night. It took a lead 38 seconds into the game on a Jae Crowder three, one of the team’s nine in the first half, and didn’t look back. It didn’t even need scoring from Thomas to comfortably pull ahead of and away from the spiritless Bulls. It was as if the result was a foregone conclusion in the minds of Bulls fans and players before others even realized the game’s fate.

Take nothing away from the Celtics, though. They spread the floor and sprayed the ball around it. Avery Bradley led the team with 23 points. All five starters were in double figures after three quarters. An energetic bench was similarly efficient. The 3-point shooting, especially in the first half, separated the teams:

The Bulls, meanwhile, barely recorded double-digit assists. Butler had 23 points, but no assists. When he was smothered by Boston’s active defense, Chicago resorted to Wade step-back threes, Robin Lopez 21-footers and generally ugly offense. No Bull besides Butler scored more than 10 points. Instead, they assaulted the United Center rims with brick after brick on contested shot after contested shot.

The entire night was a stark contrast to Games 1 and 2, when the offense hummed, when the defense was disruptive, when Boston fans quivered, and when the Celtics scrambled to adjust. Brad Stevens made those adjustments, and Boston won the series handily. But we’ll never know how the adjustments would have functioned with Rondo counteracting them. We’ll never know if the 8-over-1 upset could have happened with Rondo pestering his former team.

Round 1 is now in the past, and so is that big “what if.” It won’t dog Boston. It will be swept into history. The Celtics will begin their second-round series against the Washington Wizards next week, and they’ll do so unaffected by their early playoff stumbles.

But those stumbles could’ve amounted to so much more. At the very least, they would have amounted to so much more than the anticlimactic Game 6 that mercifully ended the series Friday night.