Bulls come up short against Bobcats
The Bulls have been promoting the theme that they're a deep enough team to overcome a few injuries. But they couldn't find enough help for Derrick Rose on Tuesday night.
Rose scored 33 points, including his team's final 8 of the game, but the Bulls missed a few when it counted and suffered an 83-82 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats at the United Center.
The Bulls (28-14) failed to stretch their home winning streak to nine games, which would have been the longest since 1998.
Playing without Carlos Boozer (sprained left ankle) and Joakim Noah (thumb surgery), they lost to the Bobcats for the second time in six days.
This one ended when Rose came up short on a fallaway 19-footer at the final buzzer. It was a shot that had little chance for success, considering his momentum was going away from the basket after gathering a baseline inbound pass against Charlotte guard Gerald Henderson.
“I don't want to be in that position, trust me,” Rose said. “We should have easily won that game. But we've just got to take it out on the next team.”
Charlotte (16-24) took its first lead of the fourth quarter with 1:13 remaining when Gerald Wallace took off for a fastbreak lay-in while drawing a foul on Ronnie Brewer. The ensuing free throw made it 79-78.
“I tried to run in front of him so he couldn't dunk the ball and I thought (Rose) was going to make a play on the ball (from behind),” Brewer said. “But we weren't on the same page. If I could play it back, I probably would have tried to wrap him up and make sure he couldn't get the ball to the rim.”
Rose followed in his own blocked shot to give the Bulls their final lead with 1:05 left before Bobcats guard Stephen Jackson hit a jumper over Korver to put the visitors ahead with 47.5 seconds left.
On the Bulls' next possession, Rose found Brewer under the basket. He pump-faked and decided not to challenge Wallace, who was closing in from behind. Instead, Brewer threw it outside to Luol Deng, who missed an open 3-pointer.
“I felt good about it,” Deng said. “When I got the ball, I was wide open. I felt like I had time, too. I tried to make sure I wasn't short. The two 3s that I missed before, I was short on both of them. So I tried to make sure I wasn't short and I was actually long.”
Rose fouled Jackson on the rebound and his 2 free throws sent Charlotte ahead by 3 with 36.3 seconds left. Rose answered with a driving lay-in to make it 83-82 with 25.2 seconds remaining.
It looked as though they needed a foul to get the ball back with enough time left to make a difference. The Bulls waited, though, and Charlotte called a timeout.
On the ensuing inbounds play, C.J. Watson knocked the ball away from Bobcats guard D.J. Augustin and out of bounds.
The referee closest to the play called Charlotte ball. But after a video review the ruling was surprisingly switched and the Bulls had a chance with 8.2 seconds on the clock.
Instead of Rose, the ball went to Kyle Korver, whose layup attempt was blocked out of bounds by ex-Bull Tyrus Thomas. Rose then missed the last-gasp jumper.
“What happened is on the back pick, they had two (defenders) go with Derrick, so Kyle was wide open,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It was the right play, and they made a good reaction from the weak side and got the block.
“When you lose a game by a point, there are a lot of plays that lead up to it that we've got to do better.”
Mike McGraw's game tracker
Bobcats 83, Bulls 82
<B>Too many games: </B>Playing their fourth game in five days and missing Carlos Boozer again with a sprained left ankle, the Bulls struggled to score against Charlotte. Derrick Rose (33 points) missed a fallaway 19-footer at the final buzzer
<B>Second options:</B> Rose scored the Bulls' final 8 points and couldn't get enough help. Luol Deng missed an open 3-pointer with about 38 seconds left, and Kyle Korver had a layup attempt blocked with 3.1 seconds on the clock.
<B>Not enough inside: </B>Without Boozer, the Bulls were dominated in points in the paint 46-28. Charlotte also won the battle of offensive rebounds 9-3 in the second half.