Derrick Rose’s jumper helps Chicago Bulls beat Los Angeles Lakers 88-87 in a thriller: NBA Recap P-2
Los Angeles Lakers came out firing after the interval to the delight of a vocal Staples Center crowd. The home team, down by 7 points at the break, rallied to get back in the game during the third quarter.
Led by Kobe Bryant, they levelled the scores within 5 minutes of the restart and from then on neither team could get an advantage.
The Chicago Bulls seemed unable to find a way through Los Angeles’ defences but the Lakers couldn’t make many inroads of their own either. The game consequently entered the final period finally poised at 69 – 68 to Los Angeles.
It seemed as if the Lakers will prove too much for Chicago during most of the final quarter. Los Angeles took a firm grip of the game just as the Bulls los their spark, going on 13 – 3 to for an 11 point advantage with just 3:44 left on the clock.
That though was the queue for Chicago to rally, and led by Derrick Rose, they scored 6 without reply to make the game interesting. The Lakers seemed to have lost momentum just when Chicago were gaining steam and Rose made the game winning shot with just 4 seconds to go. It could still have turned out differently, but Kobe Bryant’s effort at the death was blocked away by Luol Deng to secure the 88 – 87 win for Chicago.
"If it weren't for my teammates, making the steal and getting the ball to me at the end, there's no way I could have gotten that shot off to help us win that game," Rose said about his game winning shot.
Deng, who blocked Bryant’s last gasp effort, was also responsible for turning things in Chicago’s favour by stealing the ball off Kobe and dishing it to Rose for the game winner.
"He threw a lob pass, and I was able to get to it," Deng said. "As soon as we got the ball, I knew we were going to score."
Chicago had a decent scoring night as they shot 40.4 percent from the field and a very impressive 46.7 percent from beyond the arc. In contrast, the Lakers were actually better from the field with 47.4 percent but disappointed elsewhere. They shot a dismal 25 percent from downtown and were horrendous from the charity stripe, missing almost half of their 20 free throws.
It was a welcome win for the Chicago Bulls who were disappointed to bow out in the Eastern Conference Finals last year and will give them confidence to go one better this time around.
For the Lakers, it was a slightly disappointing start to the reign of new head coach Mike Brown. Although the team lost the game, they did play well, especially on defence, and that was a big plus for the man hired to replace Phil Jackson. He was however upset with the final result.
"We played pretty good basketball until right down the stretch," Brown said. "There were a lot of things that went wrong down the stretch where we didn't quite finish the game."
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