Derrick Rose’s jumper helps Chicago Bulls beat Los Angeles Lakers 88-87 in a thriller: NBA Recap P-1
Chicago Bulls have got their NBA season rolling in style.
The Bulls faced a tough task on Christmas Day, heading into the Staples Center to face the Los Angeles Lakers, and after tough three quarters rallied late to pull off an 88 – 87 win on a Derrick Rose 9-footer.
Chicago relied on some late game heroics from super star point guard Derrick Rose and faithful servant Luol Deng to put one over the Lakers. Rose bagged 22 points, including the last 2, and had 5 assists to his name. Meanwhile
Deng put in a hard fought effort, garnering 21 valuable points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals and the game winning block.
Carlos Boozer was the other Chicago player to reach double figures on a night when the Bulls struggled at times but eventually came out with a win. Rose wasn’t too thrilled that Chicago had got themselves into a hole but said it
was heartening to see the team fighting hard and making a comeback.
"We definitely don't want to be in a situation like that, but we fought our way back," said Rose, who went 9 for 13 from the field. "We just played harder. We stepped up our intensity on the defensive end. Throughout the whole
game, our defence wasn't there. I mean, we showed spots of it, but we didn't keep it consistent. Then, at the end, we played defence."
Los Angeles had strong showings from Pau Gasol, 14 points and 8 rebounds, and Steve Blake, 12 points off the bench. The star of the show however was the one and only Kobe Bryant. The legendary shooting guard scored a game high
28 points dispute nursing a slight wrist injury and also bagged 6 assists.
The Lakers were missing centre Andrew Bynum and Kobe said they did well under the circumstances. He was especially pleased about the defensive effort which shows the impact new head Coach Mike Brown already has on the side.
"I saw a lot of positive things," Bryant said. "Defensively, we were terrific. We did a good job, and we're just going to get better. We're going to be very good defensively."
The game got off to an even start although the Lakers started to pull away in the middle of the first quarter. They were up by 8 with just around 4 minutes left on the clock when Chicago woke up and started to eat away the deficit.
By the end of the quarter, it was Chicago who held a two point advantage at 22 – 20.
The 2nd quarter was also even for the most part and the game see-sawed until Devin Ebanks levelled the scores at 47 apiece with just over a minute remaining. The Bulls then went on a 9 – 2 run, sparked by a three-pointer
by Rose, to end the first half leading at 56 – 49.
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