So What Happens Tonight?

What wonders are in store for basketball fans for game 7

By TOM FORNELLI

Updated 5:31 PM CST, Sat, May 2, 2009

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When the Bulls and Celtics tip-off from the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston tonight, the eyes of the world will be upon them. That is what a game seven brings, especially one for a series that's been talked about as much as this first round matchup. The first six games, with the exception of game three, have been absolutely incredible. Seven overtime periods, countless big shot after big shot, two near scrums, and plenty of blood.

What more can an NBA fan ask for except maybe a live sacrifice at halftime?

Tonight, though, tonight will have people who haven't watched a second of basketball this season tuning in with friends. They've heard all about this series for a week now, and they're going to want to see what all the fuss is about. All of which begs the question - can game seven even come close to meeting the hype?

The way things have gone in this series, unless the game goes into five overtimes, and isn't settled until somebody hits a full-court game-winning shot at the final buzzer all while saving a baby from a burning building with aliens making first contact along the scorer's table, it won't. But that's been precisely the beauty of this series. If all of that were to happen, nobody would be very surprised.

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The Epic Bulls Vs. Celtics 2009 Playoff Series

Okay, maybe the aliens thing would cause a few jaws to drop, but the rest of it would be pretty ho-hum at this point.

There's a chance Boston's Kevin Garnett will take a break from dropping f-bombs while dressed in nice suits from the bench and actually try to play for the first time in the playoffs tonight, but it's probably not going to happen. Even if he could play he wouldn't be able to bring much to the team considering he hasn't played at all in recent weeks, and would only risk hurting himself further.

We do know that super-villain Rajon Rondo will be on the court after the NBA decided no further punishment was needed for his little tiff with Kirk Hinrich. So far in this series Rondo has torched the Bulls defense, tripped Hinrich going for a layup, causing him to get stitches over his eye, knocked out Brad Miller's teeth, and then thrown Hinrich into the scorer's table. He's beating them up in two different ways and has become the new Isiah Thomas.

If the Bulls win tonight and Rondo walks off the court early, he'll only cement his status.

Again, given the nature of this series, it could happen. We really have no idea what's going to go down in Boston tonight. The Celtics could blow the Bulls out by 40 just as easily as the Bulls can blow them out by the same margin. Or it could come down to another Ray Allen three-pointer in the closing seconds. In fact, the only thing that would be surprising about that would be if Allen actually missed the shot.

There may be another overtime, there might not be. There may be punches thrown, there may be hugs given. We just don't know.

All we know is that we're going to watch.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.