Derrick Rose eventually fouled out in the second overtime of the Bulls’ 123-115 win over the Suns Wednesday night, on a questionable illegal screen call, but before that, he scored 35 points and posted a double-double with 12 rebounds and had some Bulls fans already starting to tentatively say, “MVP!”
Rose took a backdoor pass from Joakim Noah under the basket with seconds left in regulation and put in the layup that tied the game at 101. The Bulls never had the lead during regulation, and the first overtime went back and forth before Rose tied it again with less than a second remaining to send it to overtime number two at 111 each.
Noah had 15 rebounds and is edging closer to regaining the league lead that Minnesota’s Kevin Love took away from him with his 30-board game a few weeks ago. Noah’s average is 13.4 boards per game and he has 10 double-doubles in the Bulls’ 13 games so far this year. And they did all this without Taj Gibson, who sat out with his persistent foot problem. He's expected to be ready by Friday.
Meanwhile, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade were losing again; the Heat lost their third game in a row to fall to 8-7. Who needs ’em?
The Bulls will take a well-deserved day off before facing the Nuggets in Denver tomorrow. A win would clinch a winning circus trip for the Bulls.