Throughout the entire game between the Chicago Bulls and the Philadelphia Sixers, Derrick Rose was dominant. Scoring 23 points, dishing out 9 assists and snatching 9 rebounds. On his way to a triple-double and a game one win. Then tragedy struck. The arena fell silent as Rose wailed and wallowed, lying on the floor in obvious pain. It was with 1:22 left in the game, when Rose was attacking the hoop and his knee locked up on him and he collapsed to the ground .The Bulls were on their way to a relatively easy victory and many now question whether it was even worth Rose being in the game. They continued on to a 103-91 win. But everyone’s question was still looming, can the Bulls survive without their superstar Derrick Rose? Head Coach Tom Thibodeau was very stoic with his answers after the game. “It’s a part of the game,” he said. “There’s going to be injuries. A guy can get hurt in practice, he can get hurt in the first five minutes of a game, he can get hurt at the end of a game. He can get hurt at any time and you’ve got to deal with it. That’s part of this game. He’s had a lot of injuries this year. It’s been unfortunate. But we do have more than enough to win with it. So whatever the circumstances are, we’ll deal with it.” Through all of this adversity, I still believe the Bulls will be able to survive. Rip Hamilton came off of a great performance last night, and Luol Deng continues to play well. I have faith that the Bulls can survive for two reasons: Tom Thibodeau and the way they play defense. They were 18-9 during the regular season without him, including victories over playoff teams Miami, Boston, Orlando, Atlanta, New York and Philadelphia, those were obviously not best-of-seven series. And the Bulls were not looking to survive a round but to take the next step, presumably beating the Heat and playing for the NBA title. But considering the way the Bulls play defense and work well as a team, I still believe they can survive through the playoffs.
- The Knicks need to change something up to compete with the Heat
Last Night, the New York Knicks put together one of the worst performances in playoff history. They scored a total of 67 points, and LeBron James outproduced all of the Knicks starters. They tied a franchise record for turnovers in a playoff game and the 33-point loss to the Heat is their 4th-largest margin of defeat in playoff franchise history. Overall, is wasn’t the greatest performance by the Knicks. They couldn’t stop LeBron James, who shot 10-14 from the field and totaled (32,4,3,4). J.R. Smith was the best player for the Knicks yesterday, he had (17,4,2,2). Another tough break for the Knicks came when Iman Shumpert tore his ACL and was lost for the year. “They played really well,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said, “and we played awful.” That quote pretty much summed up the night for the Knicks, who play tomorrow, Monday, April 30th. Hopefully they will be able to turn it around.
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