For most of the second half, you could have sworn that Ray Allen was wearing a home UConn Huskies uniform and that Ben Gordon was wearing an away Huskies uniform with the battle that they put on.
Gordon may have scored more points (42 to 30 for Allen) but it was Allen and the Boston Celtics who had the last laugh as his three-pointer with 2 seconds left gave them an 118-115 win over the Chicago Bulls at the TD Banknorth Garden.
The win for the Celtics ties the series at 1 after falling to the Bulls on Saturday afternoon.
Trailing 112-111 with a minute to go in the game, the Bulls called a timeout to set up a play. They came out of the timeout and Gordon was able to hit a 20-footer to put the Bulls back up by 1. Rajon Rondo then missed a 17-footer but got his own rebound and hit Allen who nailed a three to put the Celtics back up by 2.
After another timeout by the Bulls, Gordon hit a 16-foot jumper to tie the game at 115 with 12 seconds left. The Celtics called time to set up a play for Allen. They inbounded the ball and Rondo hit Allen who nailed the three with Joakim Noah in his face to give the Celtics the win. The Bulls were out of timeouts and could only muster a 50-foot shot by Tyrus Thomas that wasn’t even close.
Glen “Big Baby” Davis had a terrific game finishing with 26 points and 9 rebounds. Despite injuring his ankle in the first half, Rondo came back out and had a monster game finishing with a triple-double of 19 points, 12 rebounds and 16 assists while Paul Pierce added 18 points and Kendrick Perkins had 16 points and 12 rebounds.
The Celtics also lost Leon Powe to a left knee injury during the game and the inital reports are that it’s not good.
John Salmons added 15 points and Brad Miller came off the bench to score 16 points. Noah ended up with 13 points and Derrick Rose had just 10.
The series shifts back to Chicago for Games 3 and 4. Game 3 will be on Thursday at 8 PM.
