Chicago Bulls: Bulls Hold off Pistons Behind Carlos Boozer and Derrick Rose
Carlos Boozer seems to be getting back to form in time for the playoffs, having one of his best games as a Bull tonight, scoring 22 points, adding eight rebounds and seven assists as the Bulls held off a late Pistons rally to beat Detroit, 101-96.
Derrick Rose added another 27 points, seven assists and four steals. It was an interesting game for Rose who was spectacular in the first half but grew frustrated in the second half as he felt that he was not getting some calls, and at one point even drew the second technical of his life.
To be fair the refs were letting a lot of contact go both ways, but in one particular sequence, Rose was fouled pretty hard but didn't get the whistle. The ball went out of bounds and on the ensuing inbounds pass the ball went to Rose outside of the arc, who drew contact while shooting but again no foul was called.
Agitated by what he felt were back-to-back missed calls, Rose let the officials know about it and got whistled for technical. It was earlier this year that he got the first one in his life, high school, college or pros.
While he had a brilliant first half the Pistons ran a lot of two-man trap defense on him in the second half and the good news was that Rose handled it the best he handled it all season and Boozer stepped up to take over the scoring load, and actually did a great job facilitating the offense as well.
Keith Bogans nailed a pair of threes, and Luol Deng added 15 points.
The Bulls started the season having problems on the road, but have gone from improving to exceptional of late, having now won 12 of their last 15 away games. On the season now they are 23-15 away from home and only have three more road games on the season.
The postseason prospects grew exponentially tonight. In addition to the encouragement of seeing Rose beat the trap and Boozer stepping up to help, and in addition to seeing the Bulls continue to win on the road, they continued to see an improved situation after their game was over.
First, the Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics in a thriller, 88-83. Then the Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs to send them to their longest losing streak since before Tim Duncan was drafted in 1997.
The Chicago Bulls are now 2.5 games up on the Celtics, and three better in the loss in column. Their magic number over Boston is five, their magic number over Miami is four. Furthermore they have the tie-breaker over both San Antonio and the Lakers for the best overall seed in the NBA.
With the Bulls playing their next three at home, and the third being Boston, if they can sweep this home stand they clinch the Eastern Conference.
The game had an extended half time that probably grew a little more "extended" than expected as Dennis Rodman's jersey was retired. His speech was what was best (and most kindly) expressed by one tweeter as "perfectly Dennis Rodman."
Once that was finally over a concession worker managed to spill some popcorn and soda on the gym floor which took another five or six minutes to clean up. From the buzzer that ended the first half to the pass in to start the second it was a full 42-minute wait.
I'm not sure what the record for longest halftime is but I'm fairly certain it was threatened if not broken.
One other note, Tom Thibodeau was named the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month and Rose was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month before the game.
