Rose, Bulls rally past Nuggets
Pau Gasol provided a little personal insight following the Bulls' 106-101 victory over Denver on Thursday night.
He doesn't need to check the scoreboard to know his own stats.
Gasol recorded a career-high 9 blocked shots and just missed a triple-double. He finished with 17 points, 9 rebounds, 9 blocks and didn't play the final eight minutes of the fourth quarter as coach Tom Thibodeau chose to use Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson.
"I keep track of my stats. I really do," Gasol said in the locker room. "I know what I have pretty much at all times. It's in my mind. I can't help it."
Overall, this was a game of career highs and shooting lows. While the Bulls piled up a franchise record 18 blocks as a team, Derrick Rose continued his deep shooting slump.
Rose came into the game hitting just 2 of his previous 24 shots. In this one, he missed his first 8 field-goal attempts, stretching the skid to a hideous 2-for-32.
But Rose stuck with it and scored 13 points in the fourth quarter while hitting 5 of 11 shots. His final stats were 17 points, 8 assists and 2 steals.
"I'm not going to let anyone dictate the way that I play," Rose said after the game. "If they're giving me shots, I'm going to take them. Shots that I normally make, I'm going to keep taking them. I could care less what anyone says or talk about my game. They're giving me shots, I should be able to make those shots."
Of course, Rose is a former MVP. He's not going to lose confidence. But when a slump hits 2-for-32, does he start planning to pass the ball more?
"No. People before me that played this game or that achieved so much in this game, the mentality, that's what changed people," he said. "My mentality is not going to change. I'm going to shoot the ball. I'm a scoring guard. It's not like I'm shooting nothing but 3s."
The Bulls (23-10) trailed midway through the final quarter, but back-to-back runners by Rose put them ahead to stay with 6:14 remaining. Rose drained a 3-pointer with 4:00 left to make it 94-88, and then when Denver closed within 3 points, he nailed a 20-foot step-back jumper with 24.2 seconds on the clock.
Thibodeau never considered keeping Rose on the bench in the fourth quarter.
"He won't be the first player or the last player to go through a slump," Thibodeau said. "As long as he's shooting the ball properly and they're the right shots, you go through the process. It happens. You've just got to work your way out of it.
"As a team, we're in a little bit of a funk. That's what I liked about the second half. I thought everyone got going and gave a little more and made a few hustle plays, and that really got us going."
The Bulls trailed 53-42 at halftime, while shooting 31.9 percent from the field. They outscored the Nuggets 35-21 in the third quarter, taking a lead on a corner 3-pointer by Kirk Hinrich.
Hinrich returned after missing five games with a hamstring strain and went 4-for-4 from the field for 10 points. Jimmy Butler was the Bulls' top scorer with 26.
Mike Dunleavy left the game in the third quarter and said later he jammed his right foot.
"I didn't really step on anybody. I just stepped on it wrong and jammed it," Dunleavy said. "We'll see how I feel tomorrow. X-rays were negative. Basically sprained the ligaments, but not your typical rolling of an ankle. I just kind of jammed it real bad."
The injury could have been worse, just like the Bulls' week. They were reeling three times but still managed to win two of those games.
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