Resurgent Rose scores 23 in Bulls big win over Nets
The way Derrick Rose eased into Wednesday's game against Brooklyn, he resembled a guy with amnesia.
This is a storyline that would work only in a made-for-TV movie, but Rose slowly regained his senses, recognized the guy guarding him as Deron Williams and remembered that attacking the basket is his specialty.
Rose finally let loose in the second quarter, scoring 7 points in 50 seconds on three quick bursts to the basket.
After a slow start, the Bulls cranked up the defense in the second half and beat the Nets going away 105-80. Rose finished with a game-high 23 points.
Asked if his hamstring was finally feeling better or he's listening to coach Tom Thibodeau's advice, Rose rejected both scenarios.
“Just give me a little minute. I know where I'm going to be,” he said in the locker room. “I know how good I am and I'm very confident with my craft and how good I am, period. You all are the ones that are going to be surprised with how I play in a little while.”
Rose added a couple of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, perhaps just to show everyone he's planning to be multidimensional. The Bulls (13-8) outscored the Nets 54-29 in the second half.
“He was much more aggressive and that's the key for him,” Thibodeau said. “The 3s, they'll present themselves, but he was into the rhythm of the game by attacking. That's what he has to do.”
Rose got a technical foul in the first quarter for complaining about his second foul. Overall, the Bulls got off to a miserable start, falling behind 10-1 and later 21-10. Brooklyn cornered the first 7 rebounds of the game until Rose finally tracked one down nearly four minutes into it.
In the previous five games, Rose didn't attack the basket very often and his shooting percentage suffered because of it. He insisted that wasn't because he was still feeling the hamstring strain first suffered on Nov. 13.
“It's just trying to pick and choose what I'm going to do,” he said. “You've got so many offensive threats on this team, you tend, as a point guard, to try to get them going a little bit and that kind of takes away from what I'm doing as far as me being a scoring point guard.”
Another missing ingredient for the Bulls has been consistent defense. On Wednesday, they gave up 51 points in the first half, then limited the Nets to 26.2 percent from the field after halftime.
Of course, Brooklyn was missing three starters. A tougher test arrives Friday when the Bulls host Portland.
Taj Gibson started in place of Joakim Noah, who sat out to rest a sprained right ankle. In his second game back after missing six with his own ankle injury, Gibson provided a spark with 6 blocked shots, to go with 11 points.
“The trust was there tonight,” Gibson said. “Guys were talking, they were responding. That's the old Chicago Bull defense.
“We really went hard these last two days in practice. Thibs, he was being a drill sergeant, really on our case every day, really digging into us, every single time we practiced. It was frustrating, but we need things like that.”
Jimmy Butler added 18 points for the Bulls, who improved their disappointing home record to 3-5. Pau Gasol finished with 16 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks.
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