Best NBA Playoff series ever?

Has there ever been a tougher, more evenly matched, closer, and harder fought NBA playoff series than the current one between the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls?

The series is even at 3-3; 5 of the 6 games have been decided by a 3 point FG or less, with 4 of them over a total of 7 overtimes and 8 points, including the last 3 which have been decided by a total of 6 pts. in 6 OT, with 2, 1, and 3 OT respectively.

The deciding 7th game will be today in the most famous NBA venue of all - the Boston Garden. If current form holds true, will this game go to 4 OT? Will the memories of Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen somehow eke out a victory to the Bulls? Will the Celtics barely survive on the memories of Bill Russell and Larry Bird to reach the second round? Will the fading memories of the hook shot of Hall-of-Famer Arnie "Stilts" Risen in 'Celtic green' give the Celtics one more game? (Couldn't resist mentioning Arnie, as he is a cousin of mine by marriage.) Or will the ghost of 'Red' Auerbach get to light his infamous and "politically incorrect" 'stogie' before the final horn of a game, for the second time in the series??

Stay tuned!

Ed

 

I am well aware that the current facility opened in is not the same as the 'Original" Boston Garden. However, the geographic site is very close, and it is still referred to locally and colloquially as the 'Boston Garden' or merely 'The Garden' in which 'local' sense I was using it, as was my use of the word "venue" as opposed to "arena" as well.

I would certainly not place this series anywhere near the level of the 1984 series, in terms except for closeness, everly matched, and 'tougher' however. In fact, I would not place it near several other 7 game NBA series, except for the closeness involved.

While there are obviously 'good' (and even improving) NBA players on both teams, I seriously doubt that Kendall Perkins, Yakim Noah, "Big Baby", Ty Thomas, Eddie House, D. Rose and Co. are likely to make very many forget 'Chief', Kareem, McHale, Worthy, Cornbread, Magic and Co. anytime soon. (Thus, the words "best" or "greatest" to describe this series, would be totally inappropriate, IMO.)

However, the 1984 Championship series had two games with one overtime each (both won by Boston, at a total of 7 pts); this series has had 4 OT games with a total of 8 pts. The '84 championship differentials were 84 pts. over the 7 games. This series differentials were 42 pts over 7 games, with half of them coming in Game 3, and 10 more last evening. That still leaves 5 games decided by 11 pts, making the 5 closest games of the 84 series decided by 33 points almost routine, by comparison.

Anyway, congrats to the Celts, even though I suspect that Boston's season may well come to an end in this next series on the parquet, unless the current team can elevate their overall game still a bit more, given the absence of KG. Interestingly enough, this will be one of the few playoff series (at least that I'm aware of) to be played entirely on parquet floors, although I believe the Celtics and Magic may have played some of these before, but when is just not jumping out at me, at the moment.

Ed

 

["Edited", belatedly, to add!]

FTR, I here note that while I did use the word "best" in the thread title question, I did not use this word in the text to describe this series, for the reasons stated in the last post.

Just for information.

Ed