After a disappointing 97-85 loss to New Jersey on Saturday, the Bulls (26-8) rebounded with a 90-79 win over the Atlanta Hawks (19-13).
Derrick Rose returned to the lineup for Chicago, after having missed the past five games, to score a game-high 23 points to go along with 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
“His explosiveness was there,” said Bulls Coach Tom Thibodeau. “His drive to the basket was there. His conditioning is not where it usually is. Overall, I was very pleased.”
Joakim Noah finished with a game-high 16 rebounds as the Bulls dominated Atlanta on the glass 51 to 33, including 15 on the offensive glass that led to an 18 to 4 edge in second chance points.
“Jo’ was a monster tonight,” said Carlos Boozer who finished with 16 points. “We had a big attention [to rebounding]. We wanted to come out, be aggressive, get every rebound we could get and get in transition. We feel like when we run, we’re at our best and letting Derrick penetrate and create for us but we have to rebound first.”
The Bulls led by as many as 21 points but saw their lead cut in the second half as former Bull Jannero Pargo (19 points, 5 for 8 on 3-pointers) caught fire in the third quarter, nailing all three of his attempts from three-point land as for the second consecutive game, the Bulls offense hit a dry stretch.
“We are not in a rhythm right now, it is very choppy,” said Thibodeau. “Part of it is not having the repetitions that you would like to get your timing and spacing. We have to correct that.”
A three-pointer from Tracy McGrady with 7:03 remaining in the fourth cut the Bulls lead to 78-72 but it would be as close as the Hawks would get as the Bulls ball movement afforded them some easy looks down the stretch and Atlanta failed to gain any further ground.
While the stretches of dry spells for the offense will be something the team focuses on, everyone just seemed happy to have Rose back on the floor as his attacking ability and speed in both transition and in the half-court offense has been something the team has desperately missed, even with having done an admiral job while he was out.
“Derrick looked good. I’m happy he’s back,” said John Lucas who scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter. “It’s good seeing him back on the court and he’s getting healthy day-by-day so I’m waiting for that beast to come out of him like it always has. It showed today. Some of the stuff he was doing, it looked like he didn’t miss a beat, like he didn’t miss any games.
“It just shows the competitive mentality that he has,” he continued. “We had a conversation and he said ‘man, I didn’t play good.’ [He] played good to me for [his] first day back and not playing a lot of games.”
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