Teammates marvel at Rose's jaw-dropping playoff debut
BOSTON - Derrick Rose scored a variety of ways on Saturday against Boston.
But the rookie guard did have one obvious signature move in the Bulls' 105-103 overtime victory - the "Sit Down and Shut Up."
Trailing 53-44 at halftime, the Celtics and their fans turned up the intensity. Several times, Boston scored and the noise inside the arena grew louder, the crowd anxious for the defending NBA champs to swat away the underdog Bulls.
Most every time, Rose came back downcourt and scored, giving the home fans little choice but to take their seats and wait for another momentum-building moment.
"He put the team on his back today," Bulls teammate John Salmons said. "The champions made a run at it in that third quarter and he came down calm, collected and just hit shot after shot, kept us in the game."
Rose scored the first basket of the third quarter to give the Bulls their biggest lead of the game at 55-44. When Paul Pierce drilled a 3-pointer to bring the Celtics within 59-56, Rose came back and buried a jumper.
After Rajon Rondo's driving lay in, Rose threw in a tough bank shot over center Kendrick Perkins. When Glen Davis drilled a jumper to make it 63-60, Rose knocked down an even longer jumper as frustrated groans engulfed the TD Banknorth Garden. All of this action happened on six consecutive possessions.
"I'm not going to say I'm surprised. I know he's capable of doing it," Salmons added. "But (it seemed like) he came down a good five straight times and hit midrange jumpers. That's pretty tough. I was impressed."
After tying the NBA record for most points (36) by a rookie in his playoff debut, Rose was summoned to the interview room. While Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro finished his news conference, Rose stood among the media in the back of the room, as low key as ever. He wore the expression of someone waiting for a bus to arrive.
"I just wanted to come out aggressive," Rose said. "I talked to (agent) B.J. (Armstrong) and he said to just play the way you always play for the first five minutes."
Joakim Noah has marveled at Rose's talent all season and offered a testimonial to his teammate in the locker room.
"The kid is special," Noah said. "He's such a good player, but to me, he's such a good guy. People always talk about his character first. It's true. Nobody's lying about that. If you spent some time with him, he's a cool kid.
"To me, the most impressive thing to me about Derrick is to be the No. 1 pick, to play for your (own) city. I don't think I could do it. Not in New York. I think there are very few players who could handle it the way he did this year. I'm proud to be teammates with that guy."