Gameday Recap: The Name’s Rose, D-Rose

One name: Derrick Rose. That was the sound of the Cavaliers doom Wednesday night as the Bulls rolled into the Q and defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers. Joakim Noah still may be a little outspoken when he said “Cleveland sucks.” but they definitely weren’t good. The game comes as the third of a three game winning streak for the Bulls who are now own a 12-8 record, and improve to 5-6 on the road. The two teams meet three more times, the next two being in Chicago, but the troubling part in Wednseday night’s win, was that it was almost a loss. The Bulls may have won the game, but they were absolutely vanilla on the court. After winning the game for Chicago, Derrick Rose had everything but joyful words. “My stomach is messed up with just the thought of us losing that game. It hurts. We can’t accept that, the way we played. We played terrible. I am really thankful to get this win.”

Okay, let’s get it out of the way; Derrick Rose was off the chain tonight. He did fall one point short of his eighth 30 point game this season, but that still left him with 29 points. He added 4 rebounds and 8 assists to his totals on the night. Rose‘s big highlight of the night came when he hit a three point play with 19.6 seconds left which put sealed the deal for Chicago. As frustrating a loss as it was, Cleveland Head Coach Byron Scott had only beaming words for Chicago’s young superstar. “Derrick is a blur. He lulls you to sleep and goes right by you.”  Luol Deng came in second on the stat sheet yet again. Deng totaled 40-plus minutes once more finishing the night with 43. During that time Deng scrapped up 13 points and 6 rebounds. Joakim Noah also had a decent night, he had 14 rebounds and looks be getting back on track after his one game hiccup where he totaled no rebounds at all against the Magic. It wasn’t all smiles on the stat sheet. Carlos Boozer, who was coming off a double-double and had scored 54 points in the last two games, repeated his first performance as a Bull. Boozer actually did worse, he only scored four points while getting three rebounds and just two assists. Keith Bogans again made us all question just why he is in the starting lineup every night when he does absolutely nothing, and gets basically no minutes. Bogans wowed the crowd in Cleveland with another stellar performance that saw him get no points on just two shots in 8 minutes of play. The Bulls other two Shooting Guards, Kyler Korver and  Ronnie Brewster both put performed and out played Bogans yet again. Brewster played triple the amount of time as Bogans in a 9 point, 30 minute performance off the bench. Kyle Korver, who should be the Shooting Guard in the starting lineup every night, played 22 minutes and scored 12 points, all of which came in the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter where the Bulls needed points. In a situation where the Bulls needed a solid performance, Korver gave it to them; I’m just saying.

Next up for the Bulls is the defending champs, the Los Angeles Lakers. Judging by the way the Bulls played against the 7-15 Cavs, I cringe thinking of what Chicago will do against LA. After the Lakers, the road is a little easier as the Bulls play host to the Timberwolves, Pacers, go to Toronto, then play home against the Clippers. The real surprise of tonight was Boozer; it shows that he’s not completely shaken off all the rust. Boozer was averaging 27.0 ppg and 10.5 rpg in his last two games. In the two games where he was phenomenal, the Bulls won, and when he’s less than spectacular the Bulls lost. They should have lost tonight too they just got lucky, but tonight gives further credence to my theory that when Rose is down, Boozer bails him out and vice versa. Hopefully they can just consistently stay up, it would save the hearts and fingernails of a lot of Bulls fans everywhere.