Rose gets hot in fourth to lift Bulls
HOUSTON The Bulls opened the circus road trip against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night, so a Star Wars analogy seems appropriate.
If Derrick Rose is a young Jedi warrior, then B.J. Armstrong must be his Obi-Wan Kenobi. Or at least Yoda someone who can dispense advice when he's not in the room, or even alive in the case of the two fictional characters.
Rose went to the bench with 4 fouls at the 5:31 mark of the third quarter and the Bulls were outscored 13-3 to fall behind by 8 points heading into the fourth.
But Rose heeded some advice from Armstrong and took over when he returned to the game.
The third-year guard scored 14 points, which included 3 lightsabres from 3-point range, as the Bulls opened the fourth quarter with an 18-0 run. They went on to win 95-92 at the Toyota Center, with Rose producing 33 points and 7 assists.
“I had to do something,” Rose said. “I was talking to B.J. He just says, ‘Stop the game, whether that's getting to the line or whatever.' Just concentrate or focus in on either stopping (the action by drawing a foul) or scoring the ball. Tonight was me scoring it.”
Armstrong is the former Bulls guard who played on the 1991-93 title teams. He's now working for agent Arn Tellem as sort of an adviser to Rose.
“If I need any advice, I've got great people on the coaching staff. But if I need any more advice, I call him,” Rose said.
Apparently, though, Rose doesn't need to call. If he's sitting on the bench during a tough game, Armstrong's wisdom manages to find him.
“He probably won't want me saying his name,” Rose added with a laugh. “He's probably mad that I'm telling you all this. I go to him for almost everything.”
Rose started the night shooting just 24 percent from 3-point range but knocked down 4 of 5 attempts against the Rockets (3-7).
“You want him taking 3s and you've just got to live or die by it,” Houston guard Kevin Martin said. “We died by it in the beginning of the fourth (quarter).”
Besides Rose, this was a sloppy performance for the Bulls (6-3). They shot the ball well as a team but missed 13 free throws and piled up 20 turnovers.
Luol Deng didn't shoot well (6-for-21) but managed 16 points and 10 rebounds. Center Joakim Noah finished with 12 points, while the Bulls got good contributions off the bench from Ronnie Brewer (11 points) and Kyle Korver (10).
If NBA referees weren't allowed to check replays during games, the Bulls might have lost this one.
Twice in the fourth quarter, Rockets guard Kyle Lowry tossed in unlikely baskets as the shot-clock expired. One was a desperation catch-and-shoot 3-pointer and the other a baseline runner over Rose.
Upon further review, both of those baskets were waved off, erasing 5 potential Houston points.
“Love it. Best thing that happened to this league,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau joked. “We were fortunate. Those were 2 tough shots they made.”
It looked as though the Bulls would win comfortably when Korver's 3-pointer built an 89-80 lead with 4:27 remaining.
But they missed free throws, committed some turnovers, and Houston closed within 89-86 on a jumper by ex-Bull Brad Miller (19 points) with 1:09 remaining.
The Rockets got the ball back after a defensive stop before Lowry missed a jumper and Noah drained 2 free throws to make it 91-86 with 22.2 seconds left.
Bulls game day