The Lead: Fans tend to focus on their own teams, but this game was probably more about the Bulls than the Grizzlies. Under impressive rookie head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls played hard and did everything right, leading from buzzer to buzzer even without starting frontcourt duo Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer, both out due to injury.
The Bulls entered the game as the league’s best defensive team, allowing only 97.3 points per 100 possessions, and they collapsed into the paint today, harassing and disrupting the Grizzlies’ inside game and shutting down driving lanes, with the incredible length of forward duo Luol Deng and Taj Gibson (6 blocks) leading the way.
On the offensive end, Derrick Rose got to the rim at will. Rose’s combination of speed, quickness, and power is both awe-inspiring and fear-inducing to witness from courtside, where you can almost feel the whoosh when he goes by. Rose finished with a triple-double: 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists. And with Rose drawing attention, the Bulls secondary players stepped up and knocked down open shots, with Deng, Kyle Korver, and Kurt Thomas combining to shoot 23-36, mostly on jumpers.
After falling behind by 22 late in the third quarter, the Grizzlies made a run in the fourth with a lineup of Greivis Vasquez, O.J. Mayo, Sam Young, Darrell Arthur, and Hasheem Thabeet. This group went on a 15-5 run in the first five minutes of the fourth, cutting the deficit to nine, but a Luol Deng three-pointer and a trio of Grizzlies turnovers squelched the momentum.
“I told them this is what playoff intensity is,” Lionel Hollis said after the game. “We played hard, but we didn’t play hard enough.”
