Bulls Win Third Straight Over Nets With a Wild Finish
The Chicago Bulls have taken a commanding 3-1 lead over the Brooklyn Nets in their best of seven series with a triple overtime win 142-134. Considering the over/under for this game was 176, we hope you didn’t take our advice and bet the over. If even you take away the 54 overtime points scored, over won by a long way in this one.
It’s hard to blame us or the oddmakers for the line or betting the under when considering the two teams played a 79-76 game in Game Three. That’s only 157 points combined. But this game hardly resembled Game Three.
Nate Robinson of the Bulls came within one point of tying Michael Jordan for most points in the fourth quarter of a playoff game in franchise history. Any time someone is challenging scoring records by MJ, you know that is putting up some points.
Robinson ended up with 34 points as he helped the Bulls come back from a 14 point deficit in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime. The score was 109-95 when Robinson scored 12 points in a 14-0 Bulls run to tie it. Bulls fans thought he had won the game with a go-ahead shot with 2 seconds to play, but Joe Johnson banked in a game tying shot at the buzzer to send it to overtime at 121-121.
The game remained tied for two overtime periods, but the Bulls took over in the third overtime as Luol Deng put them ahead by five at 135-130. Nazr Mohammed then scored two straight buckets to put the game out of reach and give the Bulls an epic triple overtime win.
The Nets will go back home for Game Five lamenting the missed opportunity to get back the home court advantage in the series. They led by 14 with under 4:00 to go and let this one slip away. They now must win three straight, including a Game Six back in Chicago, if they are to advance past the first round.
The winner of this series will face the Miami Heat after they dispatch of the Milwaukee Bucks. Should the Bulls go on to win Game Five in Brooklyn, they will be going into the series having won four straight games. That could be a bit interesting when they go to take on the Heat. The Bulls were the team that stopped the Heat’s quest to tie the 1972 Los Angeles Lakers record win streak just a few games short.
Miami should still be a heavy favorite to win, but they may get challenged a bit.
It is looking as if the New York Knicks will be the only Atlantic Division team to advance to the second round after they complete their series win over the Boston Celtics. The Knicks go for the sweep today. After that series they get the winner of the Indiana Pacers-Atlanta Hawks series. The Hawks cut eh Pacers lead in that series 2-1 with a convincing Game Three win on Saturday.
