Gameday Recap: Whew! That Was Close

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DETROIT — Losses are tough but you have to move on from them. Thats what the Bulls were faced with doing in Detroit the day after a Christmas Day loss to the Knicks. They did that by beating the Pistons, 95 – 92 in an overtime bounce back game. You know you’ve had a good game when your starters get most of the fourth quarter off. The win gives the Bulls their 19th win this season and their 8th road win putting their record on the road above .500.

It was pretty much the Carlos Boozer show yet again, as the first year Bull is showing he is worth every penny of his fat offseason contract. Boozer finished with his sixth double-double this season as he had 23 points and 10 rebounds. Boozer was electric on the court and just as effective off as he was cheering and happy as ever watching the Bulls roll the Pistons. Then the comeback by the Pistons came and Boozer was called upon. After having his potential game-winning shot blocked, Boozer came alive in OT, scoring 31 total in the game.

Boozer had a little help from his partner in crime. You may know him, Derrick Rose. Rose didn’t have his best game this season but when overtime hit, he showed why he’s the centerpiece of Chicago’s future. His stats and those of Boozer are the ones that stick out on the stat sheet.  In Chicago’s 87-80 win at Washington on Wednesday evening, Carlos Boozer led the Bulls with 30 points, 10 boards and seven assists.  The game marked the fourth time in Boozer’s career that he was his team’s outright leader in all three statistical categories. Rose blocked Boozer from a repeating that title but Boozer

was still champion of one of those three categories; points (31). Rose finished with 23 points and had himself a double-double as well, falling two assists short of a triple-double.

Besides, Rose isn’t too bad off this year, he’s posting career highs in ppg, apg, rpg, spg, bpg, mpg and 3FG%. His 12 rebounds were also a career high for him.

Kurt Thomas didn’t have a career night, or even that great of a night, but despite that he played his spot and did his job and the Bulls won. That’s the bottom line when it comes to Thomas; he’s not supposed to post All-Star numbers he just needs to fill the shoes of Joakim Noah until he returns.

I have to take a moment here to point out something I didn’t think possible, but obviously it was. First, the Bulls only hit 4 3-pointers all night. Two of those 3-pointers were hit by….Keith Bogans. His only points were those two 3’s, but I guess he had it in him. Maybe a little more of that will put him on my good side. Then again I don’t really think he cares what I think.

The Pistons mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter, but the Bulls were able to stave them off in overtime to preserve the win. Next up for Chicago are the Milwaukee Bucks, yet another team with a sub-par record. The outcome is really a mystery as the Bulls have the equivalent of ancient Greek acting masks. One game it’s a cake walk and everyone looks stunning, then the next they lose and the stat sheet isn’t so hot. Chances are the Bulls will be able to pull on out as so far this month they’ve shown themselves to be streaky. They’ve only loss once since the 7-game win streak was snapped, and Chicago would love to put together another one of those.