BOSTON — Voting for the Rookie of the Year in the NBA ended before the playoffs started. It’s a good thing, too, because Derrick Rose would have ended the voting anyway with his performance against the defending champion Boston Celtics.
BOSTON — Voting for the Rookie of the Year in the NBA ended before the playoffs started. It’s a good thing, too, because Derrick Rose would have ended the voting anyway with his performance against the defending champion Boston Celtics.
Rose had a playoff debut like few others and led the Chicago Bulls to a victory over the Boston Celtics in the playoffs.
Not even Michael Jordan did that. No Chicago player has scored 36 points in a postseason game since Jordan retired.
Rose matched Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record with 36 points in his playoff debut, adding 11 assists to lead the Bulls to a 105-103 overtime victory over the defending NBA champions in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round series.
Playoff experience?
“He doesn’t need it,” Bulls guard Ben Gordon said. “He’s poised beyond his years. He already carries himself like a veteran out there. He had a phenomenal game tonight, to say the least.”
The top pick in the draft last year, the Chicago native led all rookies in assists at 6.3 per game and was second in scoring (16.8 points). He has done everything the Bulls envisioned, and although they’re a long shot to make a playoff run, the experience figures to be invaluable.
“Everybody wonders, why is San Antonio so smart?” said assistant coach Del Harris. “Why are the Lakers so smart? Why is Utah smart? Because they’re in the playoffs every year, and they keep a core.”
And this experience, he believes, will educate the Bulls. Particularly Rose.
Chicago (41-41) was on the outside looking in at the playoffs for much of the year but won 12 of the final 16 games. The fact that the Bulls finished at .500 while landing the seventh seed was a victory. Even so, don’t tell the Bulls they would be better off in the lottery.
To them, that’s just naive.
Rose, Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas and John Salmons all have either limited playoff experience or none at all, and how they perform could go a long way toward determining whether the Bulls challenge the Celtics.
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