Sports Redux: That Turned Out To Be A Pretty Good Series

It IS over, right? They're not going to suddenly declare this 5-out-of-9, right? They're not going to suddenly announce that they found an extra couple of Bulls points in Game Five, so we have to play out another OT?

No, apparently not. As far as we can tell, the first round IS officially over. The pesky Bulls ARE officially flying home for good. And the Celtics, or what's left of them, ARE scheduled to open the second round Monday against Orlando.

The C's fell behind early, then put together a riproaring run just before halftime to go into the break with a 13 or 14 point lead (we're still unclear on when exactly the officials decided to give Ben Gordon an extra point). The Bulls never got out of it, but they never really got back in it. Not that it wasn't tense for the entire second half, because it was. It may not have taken OT, but that's not to say that the Celtics didn't need almost every second of this one. In other words, this took a lot out of everybody.

So let's single out some highlights. Let's start with Eddie House, who was almost invisible for most of this series. Luckily, it takes Eddie 0.0046 seconds to heat up, so he was able to hit big two three-pointers and lead the aforementioned second quarter rally. Pierce and Allen were good, if not transcendent, and Baby and Perk did a good job in the frontcourt. Kendrick Perkins also somehow drew a technical foul for getting whacked in the shoulder by Brad Miller and walking away quietly. Never let that happen again, Perk.

But the main reason the Magic are coming here instead of Chicago is the defense. "We turned into the Celtics again," was Coach Doc's quick and accurate answer to why Game Seven was over in regulation. After a hot start, Ben Gordon was reduced to taking bad jumpers and kicking his legs out in a futile attempt to draw a foul. Miller and Noah were taken out of the inside game, and only Rose and Hinrich were offensively keeping the Bulls around.

So congrats, C's; you have almost two whole days to recover. For what it's worth, and we may regret this, we think Orlando's a little bit of an easier draw. They're not particularly fast, they like jump shooting, and we're skeptical that any of the Magic are self-confident enough to demand the ball with the game on the line. So if the Celts get pushed around and lose on amazing buzzer-beaters, we're sorry. We still say Celtics, maybe in seven, but nothing like the excruciating seven we just saw.

The Sox and Tim Wakefield won, with Wake's record going to 3-1. The Sox opened up a 6-1 lead and hung on for a 10-6 win, with a Lowell home run and 3 RBI apiece from Nick Green and Kevin Youkilis. David Ortiz went 0-2, and candles are being lit. The sox have one more at Tampa Bay before making their first visit to the Mausoleum in the Bronx.

And congratulations to Mine That Bird, the unlikely winner of the 2009 Kentucky Derby after the most amazing run we can remember. If the stories about Mine That Bird are true, he cost his owner $40 and walked all the way from his ranch in New Mexico to Churchill Downs, and became the biggest underdog (underhorse?) to win the thing in decades and decades. Now if we can just figure out what that name means.