Great teams find a way to win.
This was by no means an easy game for the Bulls. They let one of the worst teams in the league hang with them for far longer than they should have to the point where it was tied with 25 seconds left in the game.
If not for Derrick Rose's 4th quarter heroics the Bulls would've dropped their first game of the 2nd half to a team with just 8 wins.
In the grander scheme of things, this was a regular season home win. But the implications are a little more intense.
Rip Hamilton played 17 minutes off the bench in his first action in several games coming off injury. He looked a little slow coming off screens and wasn't totally back in shape. That said, he still did some things well, so look for him to play back into game shape as the rest of the second half rolls along.
Of their eight losses, 3 have been to teams sub-.500. Including tonight's game, there were another 3 games that could have gone either way that again were against teams with losing records.
I don't know if the schedule is getting to them at all. The Bulls' heads might just not be in it against lesser competition.
Sometimes there are games when the other team just plays harder than you do. That's what it seemed like tonight. Derrick Rose willed his team to victory, was helped by double-double efforts from Jo and Lu, and they were still able to chalk another up in the win column. That said, if they expect to beat the Heat, they need to put efforts like this behind them and play the kind of basketball they've shown to be capable of playing.
Carlos Boozer is a prime target for keeping his head in the game. The dunk he had over Kaman late in the first quarter was fine, but then he earned a technical for taunting when he glared at Kaman afterwards. Boozer was also benched when the Bulls were down four towards the end of the game and remained on the bench while the team ripped off an 8-0 run. Even if these rumors of trading Boozer to the Lakers for Gasol likely will never come to fruition (because of money and other talent questions), Boozer should still take it as a signal that he needs to improve his game. He has not been dependable in crunch time for the bulk of the season and that's a big black mark on his resume.
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