Sixers Have No Answer for Rose: And That's No Bull

The Chicago Bulls brought a five-game winning streak and the best record in the NBA into Sunday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers. They left with both of these intact.

Derrick Rose had a Jordan-like game for the Bulls. He had buzzer-beater jump shots to end both the second and third periods. Then he started the fourth quarter with another basket to get the Bulls off to 17-4 streak and an 81-68 lead. The Sixers were able to fight back by double-teaming Rose with Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young.  This temporarily disrupted Rose's flow, and the Sixers were able to close the Bulls' lead to 87-85 with a string of fast-break baskets.

Then the Bulls countered the Rose double-team by putting Joakim Noah up at the top of the key. There he would take the pass from Rose and quickly get it to the open man resulting from the double-team. At a key point in the game, Rose just ran through the double team and pretty much won the game with a running jumper in the lane to give the Bulls a 93-89 lead.  The Sixers had their chances in the last minute, but were unable to take advantage of them. The Bulls held on to win 96-91.

Rose finished the game with 35 points. With the Sixers' center Spencer Hawes again watching from the bench, Noah was able to dominate the boards with 18 rebounds.

The Sixers had five players score in double figures.  Young had a very strong game and led the fourth quarter comeback attempt. Elton Brand had his third consecutive double-double. The Bulls were so effective in defending the Sixers' sixth-man spark Lou Williams that he had no points from the floor.

Sometimes in the NBA the game is simply determined by which team had the single best player on the floor.  And Rose was clearly that tonight.