Atlanta Hawks fly high at United Center and beat the Chicago Bulls 103-95
(Part 1)
The Atlanta Hawks beat the odds in their series against the Orlando Magic to reach the Eastern Conference semi-finals. Now they are at it again. Atlanta stunned the Chicago Bulls in the first game of their playoff series to win 103 – 95 at the United Center.
Chicago’s struggles were mirrored by those of their star player Derrick Rose, as he shot a disappointing 11-27 from the field en route to his 24 points. Luol Deng added 21 and Carlos Boozer had 14 despite suffering from a toe injury.
Atlanta were led once again by the dynamic duo of Jamal Crawford and Joe Johnson. Jamal had 22 points coming off the bench. The star on the night however was his team-mate Joe Johnson. The Atlanta guard tore apart the Bulls defence as he piled up 34 points.
He shot 12-18 from the field and absolutely murdered the Bulls from downtown, making all five of his 3-point attempts. Jeff Teague, starting in place of the injured Kirk Hinrich and was the third Atlanta player to reach double figures for scoring.
Before the series most pundits had wrote off Atlanta’s chances, prompting a complaint from Jamal Crawford after the game that "We're the team that nobody talks about,"
However, Joe Johnson said that didn’t bother the Hawks too much, "As long as we've got each other's backs in the locker room, we don't care about the criticism."
Chicago were the clear favourites for the game, being the number one seed in the East and playing at home but it was Atlanta who came out firing early on. Atlanta put Chicago against the ropes right from the start as they scored the first nine points of
the game. The tone for the first quarter was set from then on as Chicago tried to catch up with Atlanta. However, they simply could not get near the Hawks and ended the quarter 10 down at 28-18.
Derrick Rose, the favourite for the MVP award, had a nightmare first quarter as he failed to register a single point. Rose missed all 7 field goal attempts and that took away a valuable offensive outlet for Chicago. After going pointless in the first, Rose
only scored five points in the second quarter. He improved in the second half.
Although Atlanta stretched the lead to 11 early in the second quarter, the Chicago Bulls mounted a comeback as the home crowd got behind them. With Chicago talisman Rose struggling, the bench stepped up to reduce Atlanta’s lead. Half of Chicago’s 32 points
in the second quarter came from the bench as they cut into the deficit. Carlos Boozer scored a layup, after Rose set him up, with 2.9 seconds remaining in the quarter to reduce the gap to one. The first half ended with the score at 50 – 51.
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