The Official Site of Derrick Rose

Wed, Feb 25th 2009, 09:34

Rose Scales Rookie Wall

So much for the talk Derrick Rose had hit the so-called rookie wall.

A day after coach Vinny Del Negro deflected such questions, Rose ran through the Orlando Magic’s defense to lead the Bulls to a 120-102 victory.

Rose, who scored three points in the loss Sunday at Indiana, led the Bulls with 22 points on 11-for-20 shooting.

His back-to-back baskets in the last minute of the third quarter were huge. The Bulls had watched the Magic whittle a nine-point lead down to a point, 83-82.

After two missed shots and two turnovers by the Bulls, Rose drove around Dwight Howard, Orlando’s 6-11, 265-pound center, for a layup with 39.2 seconds left. A Tim Thomas steal of Anthony Johnson set up Rose’s 16-foot jumper with 9.2 seconds left in the third quarter that extended the Bulls’ lead to 87-82.

‘‘It just builds confidence in what we’re doing,’‘ Del Negro said. ‘‘I talked to Derrick and just said, ‘Come out and be aggressive. If Dwight backs off a little bit, don’t hesitate at all. Just rise up and shoot those.’ When Derrick comes off with that aggressiveness, they have to play him, and he can use his quickness and get to the basket, where he really can excel.’‘

Del Negro had Rose sitting on the bench for all but 2½ minutes of the fourth quarter.

‘‘I don’t worry about it,’‘ Rose said of his subpar game Sunday. ‘‘It just makes you better.’‘

It was the third consecutive game that Rose has mostly watched the stretch run.

‘‘I thought we had a good rhythm; Kirk [Hinrich] was doing an excellent job,’‘ Del Negro said. ‘‘We had good control, a nice lead. So I’m not going to break the rhythm of something to get somebody extra minutes. The job is to win the game. That was the decision I made. It worked out well.’‘

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