Derrick Rose answers call in Bulls’ victory over Bucks
BY NEIL HAYES nhayes@suntimes.com January 27, 2012 11:34PM
Derrick Rose soars over Bucks defenders on Friday at the United Center. Rose poured in 34 points and shot 14-for-24 from the floor. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media
Updated: February 29, 2012 8:10AM
If you’re Derrick Rose, there are times to get your teammates involved and times to be a scorer first. With Bucks center Andrew Bogut out with a broken ankle, and the Bulls without primary scorers Luol Deng and Rip Hamilton because of injuries, Friday night’s game at the United Center called for the latter.
Rose has said his sprained left big toe will affect his game for the rest of the season and at times since his return that has been evident. But his ability to change directions, elevate and take opponents off the dribble was as devastating as he scored 34 points in a 107-100 win that served as the team’s last home game before it heads off on a nine-game road trip.
“He was very, very aggressive,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “That set the tone for us. He’s feeling a lot better. He was in attack mode. That got us going.”
Rose attacked the basket on the Bulls’ first possession of the game. He wasn’t discouraged when it rolled off the rim. His first field goal was a dunk. From that point on, Rose was taking Brandon Jennings off the dribble and beating the collapsing Bucks defense to the rim time and again. He scored 16 in the first half to help the Bulls to a 51-50 lead and started the third quarter by dribbling past three defenders and nailing a high-arcing one-hander over 6-10 center Drew Gooden.
He ended the third quarter with eight consecutive points, including a step-back 18-footer to give the Bulls an 11-point advantage and Rose 30 points heading into the fourth. After the Bucks pulled to within six with 3:07 left, Rose momentarily lost his dribble before retrieving the ball and draining a baseline one-hander to give the Bulls some wiggle room.
“My whole mind-set was attacking, Rose said. “I talked to Thibs during shoot-around and he showed me film of me attacking and that’s what I tried to do.”
Carlos Boozer had his sixth double-double with 20 point and 13 rebounds. Joakim Noah had 15 points and 16 rebounds — including eight offensive — and has had 10 or more rebounds in nine of the last 10 games as the Bulls outrebounded the Bucks 50-43 and had 14 more points in the paint.
“[Noah has] been going on an upward trend for the last six or seven games,” Thibodeau said. “His energy is really good. His conditioning and timing are coming around.”
The Bucks’ Brandon Jennings had 19 of his game-high 25 points in the first half before Rose clamped down defensively in the second.
“Brandon Jennings hit a couple shots and Pooh got mad,” Noah explained.
Hamilton bruised his thigh in Wednesday night’s loss to the Pacers and was initially in the starting lineup before being scratched before tip-off. With Deng out with a torn ligament in his left wrist, the Bulls were missing two of their top four scorers, forcing Rose to think offense first for one of the few times this season.
Hamilton and Deng could return in time for Sunday’s highly-anticipated regular-season matchup with the Heat team that eliminated the Bulls from the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Expect both to be game-time decisions.
Rose insisted the Miami game is the next game on the schedule and nothing more. Noah disagreed.
“It’s definitely not another game,” he said. “That’s all I’ve got to say.”
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