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Bulls vs. Knicks: Rose at MSG, Butler's clutch play, interior D struggling?

More from a night at Derrick Rose's Garden (c wat i did thar?).

  • Rose's dominant showing in the Bulls' 105-102 win over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden is bound to bring up hyperbolic references to Michael Jordan. He scored 15 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, shooting 5-for-9 from the field, 3-for-4 at the line, and grabbing three boards. Take away the Christmas Day universal disaster from last season and Rose is a pretty automatic show under (literally) the brightest lights:

    Date Tm Opp GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS
    2012-02-02 CHI @ NYK W 1 40 12 26 .462 2 5 .400 6 9 .667 0 4 4 13 1 0 2 0 32
    2011-04-12 CHI @ NYK W 1 38 10 19 .526 2 6 .333 4 5 .800 0 0 0 3 2 1 4 3 26
    2010-12-25 CHI @ NYK L 1 41 12 28 .429 0 2 .000 1 3 .333 2 5 7 8 6 0 7 2 25
    2010-02-17 CHI @ NYK W 1 40 10 19 .526 0 0 7 9 .778 0 4 4 6 1 0 1 1 27
    2009-12-22 CHI @ NYK L 1 35 11 21 .524 1 1 1.000 3 3 1.000 1 5 6 4 0 0 2 0 26
    2009-01-19 CHI @ NYK L 1 37 9 20 .450 0 0 2 2 1.000 2 2 4 8 0 0 3 2 20
    Generated 2/3/2012.

    That's 26.0 PPG, shooting 48.1% (.500 eFG%), .742 FT% on 5.2 FTAs per game, 7.0 APG, 4.2 RPG, 1.7 SPG, 3.2 TOPG (2.4, excluding the X-mas game) in 38.3 MPG at the Madison Square Garden.
  • It's Jimmy Butler's world; he just lets 'Melo live in it. Butler my dude. Ronnie Brewer was slowing down with the long shifts and the fresh legs were certainly a more than adequate substitution. He was only 1-for-4 from the field, but the Knicks left him and he was aggressive to the basket; just unable to finish. He slowed down a fastbreak, but otherwise made correct decisions when Rose gave him the ball in space. Can't ask more from him, as he did more than one could ask against the NBA superstar scorer with maybe the least variance in "clutch time".

    "We know he’s going to get better and better," Tom Thibodeau said after the game. "The hard thing is we’re not practicing. So he’s doing a lot of individual work with assistant coaches with film and workouts. We have confidence in his ability. He already has a defensive mindset. As he gets to learn the league and the tendencies of the players and teams, he’s only going to get better and better. He’s got a very serious approach to the game. He made big plays down the stretch."

Star-divide

  • No interior D or supreme play from Chandler and Stoudemire? The Knicks took 36 frickin' shots at the rim, led by Stoudemire's 11-for-13 and Chandler's 4-for-5. To the Bulls credit, Chandler has great hands and corrals just about anything in his vicinity and finishes about as strong as anyone; and Stoudemire put some great moves on everyone. NY officially scored 48 in the paint at a very high percentage (24-for-42, 57.1%) against a Bulls team only allowing 35.4 paint PPG on a NBA-fourth-best 45.1% shooting. It's a good thing NY was only 4-for-16 (25%) on 3s, including 'Melo bricking all four of his long-range attempts.
  • Rebounding matters. Another aspect of the Bulls interior D is more striking -- the Knicks' 14 second-chance points on 13 offensive boards (31.7%). Good thing the Bulls neutralized this with 13 second-chance points on nine offensive boards (27.1%). The second chance points weren't Bulls-gaudy, but there weren't many bricks to re-grab and they still corralled a high percentage against a Knicks zone for which Chandler is more than capable of compensating. But this was the fourth game in a row where opponents had higher offensive rebounding rate after only five times in the first 20 games. When in the red on that end, the Bulls are 6-3, but two of the three losses were blowouts and the wins were too close, as their average margin of victory in the nine games is exactly one point for a team outscoring opponents 9.3 points per 100 possessions, overall.

    It was good to see Carlos Boozer playing more inside. He was only 2-for-4 at the rim, but positioned himself to grab three offensive boards and only took two long-2s and made them in a game where he showed up for an efficient 16 points on 7-for-12 and nine rebounds. Despite Stoudemire making him look very silly at times, he used the space Stoudemire gave him very well when Amar'e over-committed to help. This is exactly how Boozer and Rose make each other better.
  • And, in case you forgot...


    I love when Kevin loses his shit.
  • 0 recs  |  62 comments

    Comments

    Correction:

    IT’S SCALABRINE’S WORLD; HE JUST LET’S EVERYONE PLAY OVER HIM

    Correction:

    IT’S SCALABRINE’S CHAPU’S WORLD; HE JUST LET’S EVERYONE PLAY OVER HIM

    THIS IS NOT A JOKE: I am offended.
    Maybe I just have horrible memory but I can't think of a single small dude in league history who makes those kinda shots regularly

    Must have something to do with his hops

    Kevin Johnson?

    Or Isiah Thomas?

    The moves with the ball to establish positioning were nowhere in their arsenal.

    The handles are such a huge part in creating the shot and Rose does mix strength and finesse with his speed in a way we may not have ever seen.

    kevin johnson

    KEVIN JOHNSON!

    no way is kj anything like Rose

    Kj was pure straight line, he didn’t have the body control or strength

    kj

    i saw every game

    tortured opponents in the paint, not in the nash/paul “pure pg” way, but the today’s derrick rose way

    with his assists vs ny, drose was starting to look like kj

    @ 6’0", kj dunked more and drew more ftas. displayed “strength”

    you are talking aesthetics. no one has drose’s.

    i think they called games differently then.
    drew more ftas.

    maybe i’m totally wrong, but it seems like guys get away with a lot more contact these days.

    agreed

    also, does it bug anyone else when they refer to how rough it was, always citing mchale vs rambus? seems like we see stuff close to that nearly every night now (though those guys were waay sloower, so it was more dramatic/traumatic).

    mchale vs rambis, lol

    KJ wasn't as fast. More deceptive speed

    I’ve heard Kyrie Irving compared to KJ. That sound about right.

    23yr old kj was

    fast. from that point, he never was able to play 80 games in a season again, however. not seen much tape… alvan adams must have averaged one lob assist their 28 games together.

    a 28yr old kj [in the 4th quarter of a pivotal conference final game 4 (suns lost). next yr, kj had a playoff PER of 27.4 (suns lost).]

    pay attention to the tomahawks @ 1:20 and 1:29. look familiar?

    KJ was the truth. Some of his game was Rose before Rose. A PG dunking on big men. Rose is obviously bigger, stronger and faster but their games are similar to me.

    i'm talking body control

    i saw a lot of KJ games too. He simply didn’t have the variety of moves or body control as Rose. Its not really about dunking on people for me. I think KJ games looked more like a rich man’s devin harris. He’d kill you off the dribble and attack the paint, but he wasn’t giving you spin moves, floaters and crazy layups like Rose.

    devin harris?

    man, that’s insulting

    i said rich man's

    but you’re right, KJ was a much better passer than Harris.

    Yeah, he makes moves in the paint that are just breathtaking
    Rose reminds me of Tiny Archibald and Earl Monroe
    There is no question....

    … we are witnessing greatness whenever he steps on the floor.

    Very true

    and thank the basketball gods that he got the chance to show us Chicago Fans what he developed within our or should i say his Town haha awesome makes me cringe to think he could’ve been with Miami Divas or we could have had Beasley….

    No one has the body control that D Rose has. Best athlete in the league right now. Being an elite athlete is more than just being fast or jumping high…it’s the body control.

    Great point.

    His body control is insane, as is his ability to play with the ball while in the air yet finish with such touch. Usually guys that try to get son fancy with the ball end up shooting it too hard, but he has that (Jordanesque) ball control even in tight quarters while in the air.

    Westbrick off the backboard, lololo
    "derrick rose's garden" just sounds wrong
    One day we're going to look back at Rose's career and realize

    how great he really was. I hope he doesn’t get typecast like Iverson did because that’s another guy that was truly a great but gets called all kind of other things because of off the court stuff and ridiculed because of the elevation of statistical analysis. That guy in his prime was pound for pound one of the best players ever.

    Rose plays in and era with maybe the greatest specimen since Wilt in Lebron, but I truly believe that Rose is the best player in the league. Some of it based on skill, some based on intangibles. To me he’s the most beautiful player to watch since Scottie Pippen.

    titles will make his legacy

    dont you think if iverson had been able to down the lakers in the finals that one year his legacy would be totally different?

    Yeah but his legacy should be better than it is now

    Look at the Philly team he took to the Finals. Yes the East was weak that year bu my God, that little dude put that whole team on his back. That’s why I’m hard on and Lebron. The guy is Karl Malone with Dominique athleticism, with PG vision. Him taking that Cleveland team there was a feat but for the little dudes like Iverson and Rose to to it is special to me.

    Durant is another guy that’s going to run out of excuses this year. His squad is stacked and there’s no reason for OKC to come out the East. Rose is carrying his team without two starters and to me is having a better year than last.

    Sigh...The West
    um the thunder just signed durant's excuse to a 5 year contract didnt you hear?
    BUT HE WON'T GET ANY TITLES CUZ MELO AND KNICKS BE GOOD!
    for someone who likes to make fun of me being a melo fan

    can you explain why you defend a guy who is making like 80mil to take jumpers all day and sit on our bench in the fourth quarters?

    and why you dont want the 2nd best player in the league if we could get him?

    Are you saying Melo is the 2nd bet in the league?

    What league?

    no. talking about dwight

    look at his sig

    Ah, OK.
    obviously melo is number one
    Well, he is the 2nd-best SF starting for the East All-Stars
    "I am putting a moratorium on the Melo"
    Eh, it's post Knicks game writeup
    You=obsessed with Melo, believe he is God and can do no wrong.

    Me=defend Boozer because he is subject to irrational hate.

    He can do plenty wrong

    Like allow his wife to have such a garbage tv show.

    as for the boozer hate it’s not irrational. They are legitimate complaints

    Yep…that shot over tyronne lue in game1 of that series is still one of my fav finals moments..up there with mj as far as unbelievable moments

    OT: oh man! this is hilarious

    lol @ 1:13

    Knicks suck.

    And I am glad they suck. I love seeing teams who just try to fudgepack their roster with supposed ‘stars,’ only to fall short. I’d rather have team unity and cohesion rather than having one or two guys take 70 shots every game while everyone else watches them. Serves Dolan (the owner), and D. Stern (admitted he was/is a huge Knicks fan) right.

    Nice post

    maybe they suck

    but they played a much more competitive game than their > .500 record suggests, & there were good all around performances from a lot of people

    the only downside, is that it went down to the wire against a team that’s not very good

    either that, or they are nowhere near as bad as everyone’s making them out to be, roster flaws and all

    East is gonna be crazy this year

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