Derrick Rose racks up 39 points as Chicago Bulls edge out the Orlando Magic,
102-99
All-Star guard Derrick Rose racked up a game-high 39 points to spearhead Chicago Bulls to a thrilling 102-99 win over the Orlando Magic at Amway Center on Sunday night.
Rose was prolific throughout the night; however he really turned the heat on in the defining moments of the game. The shooting guard came up with some big shots down the stretch as the Bulls held on.
After the game, Rose said. "We had them. We should have easily put them away. But we continue to let teams come back. It's going to hurt us if we continue to do this. But we're definitely happy with this win. We've got to learn
how to put teams away."
The Magic were playing without the big man Dwight Howard, who received a one-game suspension after he committed his 18th technical foul of the season against the Charlotte Bobcats. Ryan Anderson led the home team with
his 28 points and 10 rebounds while Jason Richardson landed 24 for the South Florida franchise.
The Bulls romped to a 9-2 run in the preliminary moments of the game. However, Anderson keyed an 8-2 run for the Magic with a couple of blows from beyond the arc, cutting down the deficit to 11-10. In the ensuing passage, Chicago
removed the kinks in their defence and kept the Magic scoreless in the last three minutes of the period. Rose was simply unstoppable at the other end and smashed the Magic with 15 of his 39 points in the first quarter to seal a comprehensive 32-24 advantage.
Hedo Turkoglu lifted the momentum for Orlando in the second quarter, landing 8 of his 9 points. Jameer Nelson than surged with a long distance shot to bring the score to 42-44. The home team managed to sustain their hold and took
the lead to four points on the next possession but Nelson came up with a buzzer beater to reduce the deficit to 50-49 as the game progressed into the second half.
Anderson canned successive buckets in the staring minute of the second half as the home team snatched the lead (53-50) for the first time in the game. The Bulls retaliated swiftly and after nearly two minutes, Rose slipped in a
driving layup to reclaim the advantage at 59-58. Anderson strived hard to put his team on the frontline and scored 14 points in the third quarter but Chicago managed to enter the final 12 minutes with 80-77 advantage.
Richardson buried a blistering blow from downtown in the first minute of the fourth quarter to establish a tie 80-80. The topsy-turvy game continued till the last 10 seconds when Boozer and Rose landed a couple of free throws to
hand Chicago a 100-96 lead. Richardson however banged a 3-pointer with less than 3 seconds to go and kept the game alive. Boozer however landed two free throws in the decisive moments to clinch a spectacular 102-99 victory for the Bulls.
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