The Chicago Bulls rode the shoulders of Derrick Rose down the stretch as he seemingly didn’t miss in the game’s final five minutes or so as the Bulls beat the OKC Thunder 104-98 on Thursday night to improve to 4-2 while OKC lost their third straight to drop to 3-3.
OKC did clean up their turnover issues on the night with 21 assists to nine turnovers. Turnovers didn’t get them beat in this one though. Not being able to stop Derrick Rose when every possession counted was more of the primary cause for losing this game. Much as it was last night with DeRosan and as it was on Monday night with James Harden. All three losses in a sense were strongly linked by not being able to get stops on the other team’s go to guard in the last minutes of the game.
Jimmy Butler was stellar as well for the Bulls with 26 points, 4 rebounds, two assists, a steal and two blocks for good measure. But in a close vote, namely me, I’m going with Derrick Rose as the OKCThunderGround No. 1 Star of the Game because unlike the homers on the Fox telecasts I actually pick the rightful No. 1 star of the game.
Tough week for OKC and Billy Donovan. Billy Donovan meet Scott Brooks’ previous life. Not as easy as you thought, eh?
So after six games we really know pretty much nothing except Durant and Westbrook are exceptionally talented players and Serge Ibaka is a nice third piece. Other than that what do we really know?
We know in this loss the Big Three scored 70 points while the rest of the team combined for 28 points. There won’t be any parade this summer in Bricktown with this dynamic in place. Still waiting for Morrow and McGary to be impact guys off the OKC bench. I was kind of shocked by how little both were used this week.
Kanter and Waiters are about what I thought they’d be. Augustin was good in the first three games, but not so good these last three. I love Nick Collison, but I never envisioned him as a regular rotational guy this season. Same with Kyle Singler. I’d like to see McGary get minutes against the Suns, same for Anthony Morrow.
Four games in five nights and the Thunder go 1-3. Think about this though–if Westbrook doesn’t hit the prayer against Orlando–the Thunder would be 2-4 with the Sports Animal and Daily Thunder imploding simultaneously with smoke billowing from the windows atop the Devon Tower.
Billy Donovan honeymoon period is over. No more gushing. The expectations for this club were clear. Should be two busy off game days for Billy Donovan and his staff.
Phoenix Suns on Sunday at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Mike Jackson