Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose had a sloppy night on Tuesday vs. the NBA-best Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena. Before his final shot of the game, Rose had gone 12-of-32 from the field for 28 points to go along with a career-high 11 turnovers against just one assist. While Rose was not without his usual number of highlights, the overall impression of his game was not a positive one.
I'm pretty sure most Bulls fans don't care a whole lot, though, because Rose's last jumper ended up deciding the game. With only a few seconds left in overtime and the score tied 111-111, Rose drained a very difficult jumper with Klay Thompson draped all over him. Take a look:
Thompson (30 points and 10 boards) missed a bank-shot runner at the buzzer for the Bulls to finish with a hard-fought 113-111 victory. The Warriors' loss breaks a streak of 19-straight wins at home — they hadn't lost since November 11 vs. the San Antonio Spurs. The best three-point shooting team in the NBA also finished the game with 13 consecutive misses from deep, which would seem to explain the loss by itself.
Despite all that, the Warriors seemed in position to win the game in the final moments of regulation. After a miss from Joakim Noah, Stephen Curry held the ball in the backcourt up 105-104 with only 18 seconds on the clock. For reasons that remain unclear, he attempted to pass out of the trap when an intentional foul seemed on the way. The Bulls got a steal, and Kirk Hinrich gave them the lead:
That go-ahead basket gave Rose his only assist of the game. A third-chance tip from Draymond Green on the next possession sent everyone to the extra period:
Curry's mistake was a shocker from the current MVP favorite, who finished with 21 points (9-of-23 shooting) and nine assists. He also had one of the most creative and confounding passes you'll ever see to set up David Lee for an easy bucket:
Yet highlights like that one came too rarely in the second half for Golden State. When Andrew Bogut became a very late scratch with the flu just prior to tipoff, the Warriors were forced to face the Bulls' stacked frontcourt with few interior options. Lee was stellar offensively (24 points, nine rebounds, six assists, no turnovers) in 30 minutes off the bench, but the team clearly missed Bogut's interior presence. Pau Gasol (18 points on 7-of-12 FG, 16 rebounds, four blocks) and Joakim Noah (18 points on 7-of-12 FG, 15 boards, six assists) were both stellar and likely should have seen the ball more than they did over the course of the night. It's notable that they were able to stay close without Bogut, but this game reinforced that they need him to beat the NBA's best big men.
It was an impressive win for the Bulls, who have beaten the Warriors, Spurs, and Mavericks since Rose expressed frustration with the team's performance last week. It's hard to say they've turned a corner — they lost to the struggling Miami Heat on Sunday — but beating the class of the league without Jimmy Butler suggests they are figuring some things out.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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