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Magic makes Bulls disappear on the boards

In the first game with all-star power forward Carlos Boozer in the lineup, the Bulls managed to set a franchise low with just 21 rebounds in the blowout loss to Orlando on Wednesday night.

As a team, the Bulls were beaten on the boards 44-21. Boozer grabbed 2 rebounds in 22 minutes.

Joakim Noah, who started the night ranked second in the league in rebounds, finished with zero. If ever there was a head-scratching statistic, this was it.

“It was frustrating,” Noah said. “That's my job to rebound the basketball. I wasn't able to do that tonight. I have to do a better job, come in tomorrow, work hard and get ready for the next one.”

Added Boozer, “There were a lot of long rebounds and there was not a concerted effort by us as a team. I didn't get enough, to start with. Most of us didn't.”

Noah had the added burden of guarding Magic center Dwight Howard and went to the bench with 3 fouls in the first half. Howard finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds, hitting 5 of 12 shots from the field.

“He's obviously a load to handle,” Noah said. “But there are no excuses in this league. I've got to do a better job rebounding the basketball.”

Rose willing to share role:

A day after Carlos Boozer insisted the Bulls still are Derrick Rose's team, Rose responded in his typically humble style.

“There may be some plays where we're just going to keep feeding him the ball toward the end,” Rose said. “If he's scoring or getting to the line, that's definitely what we're going to do. Anything to make the game easy, we're going to do.”

Things didn't come very easy on the first day of Boozer, with a 29-point loss to Orlando. But adding a new player 15 games into the season figures to take time.

“I'm just worried about getting used to playing with him,” Rose said. “I didn't really have time to play with him since the first couple of days in training camp and a couple practices. We're basketball players. We're going to get used to each other.”

Stan likes two-man offense:

This was Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy's take on the Bulls adding Carlos Boozer:

“They've got two guys who you can really just go to,” he said. “You've seen it early in the year with (Derrick) Rose, they put the ball in his hands and basicall, he's created three-quarters of their shots. That might be conservative.

“Now, he gets some help. … (Boozer) can draw a lot of double-teams and get open looks for other people. When you have those kinds of guys who can get their own shots, it makes the offense a lot easier.”

Rose, Howard stay friends:

Derrick Rose was injured twice last season when he drove to the basket and was decked by Orlando center Dwight Howard. Not only has Rose moved on, he had a great time filming the “Fast Don't Lie” shoe commercials with Howard during the summer.

“We were just hanging, laughing, joking around on set,” Rose said.

Early in Wednesday's game, Rose used a noncontact floater to score over Howard. He did drive and draw a foul on Howard later in the contest but didn't hit the floor.

“I'm going to continue to play my game,” Rose said before tipoff. “If I think about that, it will mess with my whole game.”

Bull horns:

The Bulls will accept donations for a holiday food drive at Saturday's game against Houston. … Bulls free-agent target J.J. Redick didn't dress Wednesday because of the flu. … There was a change in postgame news conference procedure: Instead of standing at a podium, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau sat at a table.

Boozer's Bulls debut does little to slow Magic