Derrick Rose sinks a three to force O.T; Chicago Bulls go on to beat Detroit Pistons – NBA Recap
Derrick Rose was back to his ace game on Sunday night as the Chicago Bulls defeated the Detroit Pistons 100-94 in overtime here at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Rose scored 24 points for the night including a clutch three with 6 seconds to go in regulation to force overtime. Rodney Stuckey had a game high 32 points for the Pistons.
With this win, Chicago clinched the Central Division title and are now 3-0 in their last three games. They improved their record to 46-14, a comfortable 4 wins clear of 2nd placed Miami.
Chicago took the lead early in the 1st quarter by scoring the first points - a layup by Derrick Rose - and never trailed in the quarter after that. They outscored the Pistons 16-5 in the first 6 minutes of the game to
take an 11 point lead early on.
The Pistons however slowly closed in on the Bulls lead, and trailed 19-26 at the end of the 1st half. Detroit opened the 2nd quarter with a 5-0 run to reduce the Bulls advantage to 2 points, and took the lead
for the first time in the game with a dunk by Charlie Villanueva. The Bulls responded with a put back dunk by Taj Gibson to retake the 1 point lead and the seesaw action continued till the Bulls finished the half with 6 consecutive points to carve out a 49-41
lead.
Back to back shots by Rose and Richard Hamilton to open the 3rd quarter gave Chicago a 53-41 lead. A 3 pointer nearly two minutes later by Richard Hamilton then extended the Bulls lead to 60-46.
The Pistons, however, were not going away so easily playing in front of their home crowd. They responded with a 16-2 run to tie the game at 62 in the closing minutes of the 3rd quarter, and then took a two point lead
on free throws by rookie Brandon Knight. The Pistons ended the quarter leading by 66-64.
Detroit opened the final quarter with 4 straight points to extend their lead to 6. However the Bulls rallied and a technical free throw by Kyle Korver followed by two free throws by Rose tied the game at 76. Detroit were leading
86-83 after two pairs of free throw attempts, of which they only scored on two. This gave the Bulls a chance to tie the game and Rose created some open space off a screen by Joakim Noah to score the 3 pointer with 6 seconds left and tie the game at 86. The
match went into overtime.
Just like they did with Miami a couple of nights ago, the Bulls outscored Detroit handsomely in O.T, this time by 14-8 to win the game 100-94. The Pistons missed six field goal attempts to score only 6 points in the 5 minutes of
overtime.
Derrick Rose was 9 of 22 for the night, but managed 9 assists. He turned the ball over 7 times, something that is becoming a bit of a concern for him and the Bulls. Joakim Noah had a fantastic night with 20 points and 17 rebounds,
13 of which were offensive. Carlos Boozer added 15 points and 9 rebounds for the Bulls. Luol Deng had a mediocre night, scoring only 2 points off 1 of 8 shooting from the field.
Brandon Knight had 13 points and 7 assists for Detroit, while Greg Monroe added 13 points and 8 rebounds. Tayshaun Prince failed to take off, scoring 4 points while going 2 of 8 from the field.
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