Rose cleans things up to lift Bulls
CLEVELAND -- This isn't the coolest sports nickname available, but there may not be a better description of what Derrick Rose does for the Bulls.
Whenever his teammates make a mess, throw things around aimlessly and show no focus or concentration, Rose is always there to clean up and discard the garbage.
He's like the Lunch Lady at an elementary school.
Playing a Cleveland team that had lost five in a row and was playing its fourth game in five nights, the Bulls found themselves on the verge of an embarrassing loss, trailing 80-74 with three minutes remaining.
That's when Rose grabbed a wet washcloth and wiped away the horrid performance. He led the Bulls on a game-ending 14-3 run, including a go-ahead 3-point play with 19.6 seconds remaining.
Rose's latest cleanup effort allowed the sluggish visitors to salvage an 88-83 victory in snowy Cleveland. The third-year guard finished with 29 points and 8 assists.
“He does it time and time again,” teammate Kyle Korver said. “He wants those moments. He's not just, ‘All right, I've got to try to do this again.' He really relishes it. He's done it with jump shots. He's done it with 3s. He did it driving to the basket.”
Asked what sort of enjoyment he gets from leading another furious comeback, Rose disagreed with the entire premise.
“No, I don't like that. Uh-uh,” Rose said. “If it were up to me, I wouldn't be in (the game). I like winning games comfortably. We won, but it still hurts me right now just thinking what happened if we would have lost.”
This one would have stung, considering how poorly Cleveland has played in the past week. The Bulls (12-8) jumped to an early 10-0 lead in a nearly empty Quicken Loans Arena but lost the momentum quickly.
Cavs coach Byron Scott made a couple of changes to the starting lineup, adding veteran Antawn Jamison and sharpshooter Daniel Gibson. When Jamison found his outside shot, the Cavaliers outscored the Bulls 33-19 in the third quarter and led by 8 heading into the fourth.
Korver started the rally, scoring his team's first 12 points of the fourth quarter. But a Mo Williams 3-pointer and Jamison free throw had the Bulls on the ropes, down by 6 with three minutes left.
While the Bulls got some defensive stops, Ronnie Brewer hit a jumper, Rose knocked down 2 free throws, then Brewer dunked a Rose fastbreak miss to tie the score with 1:53 left.
Rose's driving bank put the Bulls ahead, but Cleveland executed a nice pick-and-roll for an Anderson Varejao layup. When Rose missed a jumper on the next trip, Joakim Noah (13 points, 14 rebounds) fouled Varejao on the rebound and an ensuing free throw put the Cavs up 83-82 with 26.2 seconds remaining.
Rose responded by driving the left side and basically getting fouled twice on his way to a driving lay-in.
His free throw made it 85-83 with 19.6 seconds left. The Cavs missed two chances to tie, then Noah and Brewer finished things off at the foul line.
“It was one of those games where you're struggling at different times, but still there was a lot of fight at the end to do whatever we had to do to get the win,” Bulls coach tom Thibodeau said. “I was pleased with that.”
<P>Mike McGraw's game tracker </P>
<P>Bulls 88, Cavaliers 83</P>
<P>Another Rose rescue: The Cavaliers have been struggling and played their fourth game in five nights, yet they led the Bulls 80-74 with three minutes remaining. This situation is becoming routine for Derrick Rose, though, who scored 7 points during a game-ending 14-3 run for the Bulls.</P>
<P>Superb substitutes: Kyle Korver scored the first 12 points for the Bulls in the fourth quarter, while Ronnie Brewer finished with 9 points, 8 rebounds and 6 steals.</P>
<P>Spinning the wheels: Center Joakim Noah on the Bulls' struggles in snowy Cleveland: “It was definitely a low-energy game. We didn't play our best basketball. We've got to play with better effort.”</P>