Chicago Bulls and Derrick Rose: 'Can't Lose' Attitude Palpable in Chicago

The Chicago Bulls didn’t so much win Tuesday night’s game at the United Center…they simply refused to lose.

Even playing poorly—atrocious shooting; on a pace for 20-plus turnovers—they had the look of a team that believes not only that it can win, but that it will win.

At all times.

No matter the opponent.

Larry Drew’s Atlanta Hawks, fresh off an emotional triumph over the previously unbeaten Heat, maintained their Miami mo-jo against the rested but rusty and Rip-less Bulls, quickly building and holding a comfortable lead as great as 19 points (56-37) until…

Until…

Wait for it, you know it’s coming.

The credit will go to Derrick Rose, with an impressive run of treys and yet another clutch highlight-reel moment, and Luol Deng, whose two game-securing hoops, a super-quick point-blank flip-shot and a lay-in off a beautiful back-door cut, boasted a combined vertical elevation of 3.8 inches.

But it was the Dennis Rodman-esque toilings of Omer Asik—not to mention, the realization that a shot at the goal is a lot more likely to produce points than is a turnover—that changed the game.

While Rose, Deng and Carlos Boozer were combining to miss 30 shots, Asik simply decided to “play big”—especially on the defensive end of the floor.

Consequently, fresher legs were more frequently beating the tiring Hawk starters down the floor for easy looks, but Drew showed little second-half confidence in is reserves.

Boozer and Taj Gibson discovered some of Asik’s aggressveness, particularly on the offensive glass.

Most importantly, the refuse-to-lose crew committed but one measly turnover in the game’s final 18:43, a total of 33 offensive possessions.

Atlanta, who’d offered a rather uninspired effort in Houston three nights earlier in their only prior “Tired Legs Game,” showed more competitive grit this time around.

But two most untimely misses from the free-throw line gave the team of destiny enough options to dictate the outcome, a 76-74 victory not any prettier than that sounds.

Using Rose as decoy and Joakim Noah as playmaker seemed deceptively fitting in such a game, didn’t it?

Another appropriate oddity about this game is that each team recorded a hefty 54 defensive “stops.”  (Stops in a single game this season range from a low of 36 to a high of 63, for you fans of the palindrome.)

It stands to reason, does it not, that if the other team prevents you from scoring on more trips down the floor than you can do it to them, you’re gonna lose.  Right?  (Yes, well over 80 percent of the time, actually.)

But not when it comes to these Bulls.

Excluding the “push” with Atlanta, Tom Thibodeau’s troops have been out-stopped in three of their five other games.  The stats sheets favored the Lakers (51-45), Warriors (54-44) and Kings (47-44), but only Golden State could scratch out enough points.

Did the Lakers and Kings, despite playing more efficiently (as had the Hawks for three quarters), simply snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?

Or do these Bulls simply refuse to lose?

At what point are such wins no longer a quirky statistical coincidence, but a milestone in the development of an elite team?

The next two weeks will reveal, as Tuesday’s Atlanta tug-o-war began a brutal 11-games-in-15-days stretch of schedule for Chicago, featuring four back-to-backs in addition to their three-fer for the season.

The Bulls may not win them all…but that will only be because time ran out before they could catch up.