The Official Site of Derrick Rose

Tue, Apr 14th 2009, 09:30

D Rose leads late comeback, Bulls avoid 8th seed

Do you believe! Let me hear you. Do you believe?

“It was a big win,” said Ben Gordon, whose driving score with 14.6 seconds left was the winner in a 91-88 victory over the Detroit Pistons Monday. “I’m really proud of the way the team played and showed a lot of resilience. Guys were getting techs and everything like that and we still played through the adversity. It was our goal to improve our (playoff) seeding and not get caught up (playing) Cleveland. Guys are starting to realize anytime we’re on the floor we have a chance to win. Guys are showing that we’re not giving up. We pursue the game no matter what it looks like. We knew it would be a close game that would come down to who made the most plays at the end.”

And it was the Bulls, who trailed by six with about six minutes left, closing the game behind Derrick Rose and Gordon with a 12-4 stretch in a hostile environment and physical game that saw Brad Miller ejected and Tyrus Thomas with a flagrant foul. This time the Bulls were the Bad Boys, and it was the Pistons who withered at the end.

“Everyone probably thought the game as over except for probably us and some fans at home,” said Rose, who led the Bulls with 24 points and eight assists and three consecutive huge scores after the Pistons took that last six point lead. “We made huge plays at the end.

“It was Detroit and I remembered how they used to beat up on Michael (Jordan),” said Rose, who was unusually demonstrative and yelling in the direction of the Pistons bench on a three-point play that tied the game with 42.9 seconds left. “I’m not trying to put myself in Michael’s shoes, but it means a lot knowing everyone is keying in on their role now and doing anything to win.”

It wasn’t a game between two top contenders like it was here in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s between the Bulls and Pistons. But it had the same kind of emotion and aggression, similar frustrations and bruises as Gordon was still shaking off the effects of the nasty blow to the groin he sustained—and without a foul call—on that winning score.

Though there were significant stakes in the playoff pot.

That’s because with the road win, the Bulls now have won five straight overall and 12 of 15. Perhaps as significantly, the Bulls, 41-40 and sixth in the East, now cannot open the playoffs against the top rated Cleveland Cavaliers. Depending on what the Philadelphia 76ers do in their last two games against Boston and Cleveland, the Bulls either open the playoffs in Boston against the Celtics, who now had to shut down Kevin Garnett for the rest of the regular season with knee problems, or in Orlando, where the stumbling Magic has lost three straight to non playoff teams and five of eight.

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