Derrick Rose: Bulls' Loss Was On Me

Before Tuesday night’s Bulls-Heat game, everyone said Derrick Rose would have to give an MVP performance if the Bulls were going to even the series heading back to Chicago.

After the game, Rose acknowledged what everyone was thinking: He didn’t give that MVP performance.

“Tonight definitely was on me,’’ ”http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-05-24/sports/ct-spt-0525-bulls-rose—20110524_1_derrick-rose-james-heat-coach-erik-spoelstra" >Rose said. "I had two opportunities to end the game. Couldn’t do it. If anything, learn from it.’’

It’s hard to argue with that: Rose went a total of 1-for-8 in the fourth quarter and overtime. Rose didn’t even need to be great down the stretch. If he had even been good, this would be a very different series right now.

Rose also tried to emphasize the positive, saying, “It’s not over.” But it definitely feels over: It’s hard to picture the Bulls now beating the Heat three straight.

“”http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/gameflash/2011/05/24/29765_recap.html" >All I can do now is put it behind me and go forward," Rose said.

For Rose, going forward may mean next season. This season appears to be just about over.

Bulls 93, Heat 101: Lebron's Star Eclipses Rose As The Bulls Fall In Overtime

What else can you say? This one hurts. A lot.

It hurts for many reasons, not the least of which was LeBron James owning the matchup between he and the Bulls precocious star, Derrick Rose. James scored 35 points, carried his team on offense and shut down Rose on the other end as no other player has this year.

Rose's line of 23 points on 8-27 shooting, six assists and seven turnovers says a lot about the MVP's effectiveness in the Bulls' 101-93 loss in overtime to the Heat. Once James was assigned to Rose, the MVP could no longer see over the top of the defense and couldn't get past James to get to the rim. Time and again, he was forced into the teeth of the Miami defense and wasn't able to see the open man in the game's final minutes.

it's more disappointing because the Bulls played a hell of a game tonight, all around the roster. Joakim Noah, after a tough Game 3 and a tougher day of self-induced media scrutiny, played an inspired 45 minutes on the inside, finishing with six points, 15 rebounds (six offensive) and six assists. He still couldn't finish on offense, but he was a force on defense the entire night -- sometimes even guarding LeBron one-on-one on the perimeter. Carlos Boozer also came to play, and although he had his fair share of dummy plays on defense, I can't fault the man tonight. In nearly 50 minutes on the floor, he had 20 points, 11 rebounds and only one turnover. For the first time in forever, he finished inside and even got to the foul line a team-high nine times. Luol Deng was huge as always with 20 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks, playing with the consistency we've come to expect every time he takes the floor. The Bulls tried to go to Deng in overtime when LeBron matched up on Rose, but Dwyane Wade, who was a non-factor for large stretches, bodied up Deng and frankly, looked fresher. The Bulls lacked that much-discussed third option on the perimeter, although Ronnie Brewer did fill in admirably with a big three pointer and two crucial free throws down the stretch.

Worse still was the fact that Miami got a big boost from Mike Miller, who had scored seven points total in the playoffs before erupting (relatively) for 12 points and nine rebounds. Every time a Miller shot went in I died a little inside. He and Udonis Haslem have filled out the Miami roster to the point of negating Chicago's greatest advantage, and with Omer Asik re-aggravating his lower leg injury in the first half, you have to say the depth matchup is a near-wash.

But still, the bummer of all is that the loss falls at the feet of Rose. I know he needs more help on offense. I know the Bulls lack a two-way shooting guard. But that doesn't change the fact that the league's MVP got an advanced lesson in playoff basketball tonight from LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Rose went 1-8 in the fourth quarter and overtime with six points and two assists. James had 13 points and two assists during the same stretch, and was about as unstoppable as they come. Rose had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation after Brewer drew an offensive foul on James with :08 seconds left on the clock. Thibodeau called an isolation for Rose, who drove, deked, and tried to shoot over the top of LeBron, who played Rose perfectly and made him put more air under a tough fall away jumper that clanged harmlessly off the front iron.

There's an old NBA adage that says you need to have your heart broken before you can earn a championship. The hope all along had been that Rose would break the mold at only 22 years of age. But as the rest of the Bulls have elevated their games as this series has gone on, Rose has slumped against his greatest challenge yet. And maybe that's just how the league works: Before you climb the mountain you need to get knocked down first. If you don't believe me, ask Kevin Durant how he's feeling today. Or how Dirk Nowitzki felt in 2006. Or LeBron himself, for that matter, after being humbled time and again in the NBA playoffs before this year. I too hate that he went to Miami to vouch for a title, but it's hard to deny he's had to pay his playoff dues over the years.

Still, this isn't a swan song and there's no telling how the rest of this series will play out, as Tom Thibodeau and the culture he has created ensures that the Bulls will give everything they have until the final buzzer of the final game of the season. A return to the United Center is sure to help, and after being treated to excellence all year, perhaps the United Center crowd will return the favor and lift up their team as its season hangs by a thread.

Eight times in NBA history has a team come back from a 3-1 series deficit, most recently when the 2006 Suns defeated the Los Angeles Lakers. Now more than ever, Thibs' mantra of one game at a time -- correct the mistakes, learn, grow, have a great practice, have a great shootaround and be ready for the first quarter -- will insulate his team against the talk to come. The Bulls need to win one at home to extend their season, and to do it they'll have to forget the night their MVP was out-dueled by a more experienced one.

Bulls Will Have to Ignore Distractions To Beat Heat In Game 4 Of The Eastern Conference Finals

The Chicago Bulls have had to deal with plenty of distractions over the past couple of days while they should have been focusing on beating the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Whether it was the overblown, possibly misquoted Derrick Rose comments about steroids running rampant in the NBA or Joakim Noah using a homophobic slur while exchanging words with a Heat fan on the bench during Game 3, off-court dealings have certainly tried to play a part in the Bulls' preparation for Tuesday night's game.

Fortunately Tom Thibodeau, the all-knowing and always-thinking head coach of the Bulls, has developed a solution to quelling any fears people have that Chicago might be distracted while trying to tie the series: he's told his players not to think about the off-court issues and instead focus on the task at hand.

Brilliant!

"That's been the whole year -- he always wants us to stay focused on our job and our job is to come in here and try to get better every day," Rose told the Chicago Tribune. "Off-court distractions, I know I couldn't care less about what's going on, especially now when we're down in the series. Our biggest deal is to come out here and play hard tonight."

Thibodeau also shared some of that insight with the rest of the team, including back-up power forward Taj Gibson.

"(Thibodeau) just tells us don't listen to that, don't feed into that," Gibson told the Tribune. "Don't feed into all the stuff that's being said. He said just remember when you won Game 1, how everyone was saying you're the best, you're going to do good. And now what they're saying. So just stay focused on the task at hand, stay focused on yourself and your teammates. Just walk through fire.

"You hear it all the time, but you have to shut everything out, turn your phone off and stay away from the negativity."

If the Bulls are able to put this week's distractions behind them, there's a good a chance they can return to Chicago on Thursday with the series tied.

NBA Eastern Conference Finals: Bulls Vs. Heat Game 4 Preview - MVPlease?

So transcendent has Derrick Rose been this season that it's become difficult to blame him for anything. Sure, his defense falters at times -- but never too long. He'll miss seven straight threes, but still scores 30 on the way to a Bulls win. Yeah, he threw the ball away, but did you see how he got back for that block?! Even when he's being criticized the 2011 MVP has gotten a pass, most of all because the Bulls kept winning.

Not anymore. Not with the Bulls trailing a series this postseason for only the second time -- the first being the Hawks' 1-0  lead in the semifinals -- and Rose not able to lift his team to victory the way he has done all year. The downside of being a (media-proclaimed) savior is that if you don't deliver, all eyes fall on you first.

The fact of the matter is, Rose is the main reason the Bulls are losing. Not because he's playing poorly, but because the team has won so many times this year simply because of his out and out brilliance. Without it, the Bulls don't really have a chance against the Heat, especially if the Bulls' defense continues to allow such a high field goal percentage. Rose's numbers are down across the board from the Atlanta series, averaging 23 points, 6.3 assists and 4 rebounds after putting up 29.8, 9.8 and 4.3 against the Hawks. That is good enough for many teams, but the Bulls depend on Rose to win games late while the rest of the team defends and finishes his occasional assist. The closer-Rose death squad that shut down any team is faced while the MVP sliced and diced on the other end is nowhere to be found in this series. Two straight games now the Bulls have pulled even late only to get blown away in the final minutes, and while the defense has allowed the Heat a number of open looks, some of them are simply talented creators hitting their shots over good defense. Meanwhile Rose has scored two points and made three assists in each of the last two fourth quarters. This is a player who in clutch situations -- last five minutes of a game when the score margin is less than five -- averages 35.8 pts, 7.3 assists and 7.8 rebounds per 36 minutes. That's how ridiculously good Rose has been this year, why the Bulls have won virtually every 50/50 battle they faced up until now, and the reason Miami owns a 2-1 series lead. Again, Rose is and will continue to be a stud, but if he cannot carry the Bulls the way he has the rest of this year, they are in trouble.

Speaking of being in trouble, Joakim Noah has certainly had better days than he did for Game 3, after struggling on the court (one point, six assists, five rebounds)  and being a distraction off of it. There's no need to editorialize Noah's verbal blunder here except to say that he's by all accounts a quality human being and will likely never utter the word again, at least not in public. He made a mistake in the heat of the moment and owned it after the fact. Imagine being as fired up as you can possibly be, getting whistled for a second early foul AND THEN as you sit down some douche fan says something about your momma. Even Luol Deng said he wanted to punch the guy, and he's about the nicest fella around. I'm not excusing Noah's actions, I'm just sayin'.

As for his play, the Bulls just need more from him, as he has become the primary playmaker when Rose doesn't have the ball. This resulted in easy looks early in Game 3 until Miami began playing Noah as a passer, at which point the Bulls' offense came off the rails. With Rose bottled up on traps and extended screen-and-rolls and Noah not able to create his own offense, Chicago really struggled to get anything going on the offensive end. And I mean really. Omer Asik's status is still up in the air for Game 4 due to the leg injury he suffered late in Game 3, making Noah's presence and poise all the more crucial in Tuesday's game. After missing 30 games from thumb surgery and a handful more because of a sprained ankle, it's finally time for the Bulls to lean on Noah and for him to answer the call. 

Meanwhile, Kyle Korver has been mostly unusable in this series because of his defensive deficiencies, made overwhelmingly obvious when he was run over by a freight train late in Game 3. (That link is hilarious and totally worth a click.) Korver isn't hitting shots, but moreover isn't getting open enough to take them either. As the Heat have shelved their 3-point specialist James Jones, so too will the Bulls if Korver can't provide an offensive spark soon after he enters the game.

To win Game 4, the Bulls will need to solve Rose's struggles against the athletic Heat double-team and get back to drive-and-kick ball movement, iron out the defensive breakdowns on the interior and teach Boozer how to finish a lay-up in traffic (tip 1: yelling is not a move). That is a tall order to be sure, but before you go putting the cart before the horse or saying the Bulls simply don't have enough pieces, remember how this team got this far in the first place.

The Bulls have bounced back from adversity multiple times this season, between injuries to both bigs for extended periods, rising expectations late in the year and big-time growing pains in these playoffs. And while they did lose in disappointing fashion in Game 3, it was the first road game of this series at a fired up American Airlines Arena. With just one win, the momentum shifts back to Chicago and the series begins anew.