Chicago and Boston Game 7- Bettors Dilemma

Between the jaw-dropping individual displays, crisp team play and dramatic twists, it’s only fitting that this thrilling first-round series between the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls comes to a seventh game. And what a way to get there. The Bulls prevailed 128-127 in triple overtime on Thursday to tie the series at three games and send it back to Boston for the finale on Saturday night, with the winner advancing to play Orlando.

Think about what has occurred. A league record four games have gone into overtime and one other was last second buzzer beater. Subtract Game 3 from the equation; Chicago has outscored Boston by one point in the other five games combined. There has been seven total overtimes. If you like your action close with an ebb and flow, no problem here, with 65 ties and 106 lead changes in the series.

This series has also played havoc with totals players. Unless you have been riding the Over, which is 5-1, on three different occasions the Under would have been the correct play had the game not gone to overtime.

“If I had to just sit back and I wasn’t a player and think about these games, this is great for the fans,” Boston’s Paul Pierce said. “Everybody is getting their money’s worth.”

And the defending champions are certainly getting a run for theirs.

Now, the Celtics are trying to avoid elimination after watching an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter disappear and wasting a 51-point effort by Ray Allen that ranks among the greatest postseason displays in the storied franchise’s history.

The Bulls, meanwhile, have a chance to become the first seventh seed to knock off the second seed since New York beat Miami in 1998, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Some have theorized this game is a certain Over, given the fact of the final scores. You can’t ignore the Bulls are 17-5 OVER when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season, when they have played their best basketball and with the Celtics 15-4 OVER in home games versus good offensive teams scoring 99 or points a game, it makes sense.

However, oddsmakers like those at Bookmaker.com has set the second lowest total of the series, since invariably, a Game 7 comes down to defense, of course unless they play overtime again.

So what’s next? Quadruple overtime?

“Coming into this series, I don’t think anyone imagined it to turn out like this,” Chicago’s Kirk Hinrich said. “We thought we could be competitive, but for the games to be such crazy, back-and-forth action, it’s really incredible.”

Boston is listed as six-point favorite and they are 53-37 ATS as a favorite of 3.5 to 9.5 points over the last two seasons and understands this won’t be easy. “We didn’t think it was going to be a walk in the park,” Allen said.

It’s been anything but that.

The Bulls took the opener in Boston 105-103 in overtime because of Rose’s 36 points and 11 assists, after Pierce missed the potential winning free throw at the end of regulation and had a potential tying basket blocked with 3.7 seconds left in overtime.

In Game 2, Allen won a shootout with fellow former UConn star Ben Gordon and the Celtics prevailed 118-115 in regulation. True, Gordon outscored him 42-30, but Allen hit the tiebreaking 3-pointer at the end of regulation.

While Game 3 in Chicago was a 107-86 romp for Boston, the thrills were far from over.
Game 4 was a particularly wild one, with the Bulls winning 121-118 in double overtime.
Allen hit the tying 3 late in regulation and Gordon did the same in the first overtime, burying one with 4.5 seconds remaining. And in the second OT, Salmons blocked Pierce’s potential tying 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds remaining.

But in Game 5 in Boston, the Bulls let an 11-point fourth-quarter lead dissolve into a 106-104 overtime loss because of some big shots by Pierce down the stretch. The Bulls still had a chance to tie it after Pierce made the go-ahead shot over Salmons with 3.4 seconds left, but Rondo hit Brad Miller in the mouth as he rolled toward the rim, leaving him bloody and woozy. Miller missed both free throws—the second intentionally—and the Celtics hung on. Yet, somehow, Game 6 trumped all that.

Now, the Bulls have a chance to knock off the defending champs. Not bad, considering they struggled for much of the season, but the trade that brought Salmons and Miller from Sacramento certainly helped.

“If they had this team for the full year, they’d be a top four seed,” Boston’s Kendrick Perkins said.

Boston has yet to cover on there home court in this series and is 1-11 ATS as playoff favorite of five to 10.5 points. Chicago on the other hand is 15-3-2 ATS as underdogs the last 20 times the linemaker has assigned them in that role.

Their have been exactly 100 Game 7’s in NBA history and only six have gone to overtime, which logic dictates makes this contest unlikely to so. Nevertheless, there has never been a series like this, leaving the door open to anything being possible.

The answers unfold on TNT starting at 8 Eastern.

Andrew Seligman AP Sports writer contributed to this article.