Rose's night big 'positive' for Bulls
Early in the day, LeBron James claimed the Bulls are "much better" than the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs won Monday night's preseason tilt 107-98 in Columbus, Ohio, but the game featured a supreme symbolic victory for the Bulls.
Derrick Rose from 2011 was back in the building.
The Bulls' twice injured, ex-MVP scored 30 points in just 24 minutes, while hitting 12 of 18 shots from the field.
Going up against former Team USA teammate Kyrie Irving, Rose knocked down 3-pointers, pushed the ball upcourt quickly and scored at the rim with a variety of moves. With the regular season eight days away, this is the best news the Bulls could have asked for.
"You're talking about an MVP-caliber player," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters after the game. "He's getting easy baskets in transition, he's attacking in the pick-and-roll, he's in the paint making plays. So it's a positive."
Irving scored 28 points but played a whopping 39 minutes. James finished with 18 points, while center Anderson Varejao finished with 22. Kevin Love had a relatively quiet night with 9 points and 13 rebounds, hitting 2 of 10 shots from the field.
Rose came back for the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, just as James was shutting it down for the night, but Cleveland built a double-digit lead while Rose was on the bench.
After the contest, James was asked if he was surprised to see Rose move with such speed.
"No, I watched him all summer, watched one of their practices when they were in Vegas (with Team USA), paid attention to him over the preseason," James said. "Not surprised at all. As a league, as a fan, it's great to have him back playing at a high level."
At the morning shootaround, James compared the Cavs and Bulls, widely expected to be the top two teams in the Eastern Conference.
"(The Bulls) are a team that's much better than us right now just off chemistry," James said, according to espn.com. "They've been together for a while; we've got a long way to go."
James' reasoning is debatable. Rose has been sidelined for nearly two full seasons with a pair of knee injuries. The Bulls also added Pau Gasol, Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks to their rotation.
Cleveland brought back James and traded for Love but have plenty of holdovers with Irving, Varejao, Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson.
After the game, James talked about whether there was any special meaning to Monday's game.
"It's two teams that are trying to get better and two teams that have aspirations of winning a championship," he said. "Both teams know that it's a process and it's not right now where you sccomplish it, but it is right now where you create the habits."
The Bulls (4-3 preseason) were without their best wing defender, Jimmy Butler, who suffered a sprained left thumb Sunday against Charlotte. Gasol and Gibson scored 12 points each.
The Bulls have one preseason game remaining on Friday against Minnesota at St. Louis.
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