Bulls lose, but come home best in East
- Article
- Comments (0)
- Photos (1)
|
|
The Celtics’ JaJuan Johnson blocks the path of Bulls guard C.J. Watson as he goes up for a shot Sunday. Associated Press |
Now that the Bulls’ monstrous nine-game road trip finally has ended, this might be a good time to check the big picture.
After losing at Boston 95-91 on Sunday, the Bulls have played 20 games on the road, compared to 10 at home. They’ve also endured a long list of missed games because of injury — 18 and counting for Richard Hamilton, 7 each for Derrick Rose and Luol Deng.
Even with those obstacles, the Bulls (23-7) still own the best record in the Eastern Conference. Tom Thibodeau can earn the Eastern Conference all-star coaching job by beating Sacramento on Tuesday in the long-awaited return to the United Center.
“We’re 6-3 on this road trip,” Joakim Noah told reporters after the game in Boston. “We want to be a championship team, and to be a championship team, it’s OK, but it’s not great.
“Obviously, we’re not playing with our MVP, but there’s definitely enough in this room to win a game like tonight. But I feel like today, we got out-competed.”
There were other ways to explain the loss to the Celtics. For one, Boston guard Rajon Rondo took full advantage of Rose’s absence to pile up 32 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds.
Another consideration is the Celtics were smarting after losing at Toronto 86-74 on Friday, the first time in 11 years they scored fewer than 75 points.
Boston got off to a quick start and never trailed Sunday.
The Bulls trimmed a 14-point deficit down to 3 late in the fourth quarter but had too many careless turnovers and inconsistent outside shooting. Carlos Boozer and C.J. Watson scored 22 points each, while Noah added 16.
“I knew they’d come out like that, coming off their last two games,” Thibodeau said. “They were very aggressive. I thought they got some very easy baskets early, which gave them confidence.”
So now the Bulls await Rose’s return from back spasms. He’s planning to visit a specialist Monday in Chicago and it seems likely he will miss the Kings game Tuesday.
Rose said he had back problems in high school but nothing notable since then. In his first three years in the NBA, Rose missed just six games, one fewer than he has sat out this season.
“I’ve got to be able to move,” Rose said before Sunday’s game, according to espn.com. “Get up without hurting. Be myself. Right when I feel that there’s no pain there anymore, I know I’ll be ready.”
This is becoming a persistent problem for Rose. He was seen stretching his back on the sideline of the Feb. 4 win at Milwaukee.
Two days later he sat out the second half at New Jersey, then played just 22 minutes in New Orleans. He skipped the past two games against Charlotte and Boston.
“It’s (been a problem) the whole trip,” Rose said. “I just played through it, and the more I played through it, it tended to get worse after every game. At the time I was really worried about it, but (I’m) just trying to stay positive and hopefully I’ll be all right.”
This road trip was smooth sailing when the Bulls played bad teams, but they’ll need to be closer to full strength to win the tough games.
So they need to make sure Rose gets healthy.
“It was a great road trip,” Deng said. “We want to win every game. At the same time, we got to spend a lot of time together off the court. (That) kind of helped us.”
mmcgraw@dailyherald.com
