Derrick Rose put on a clinic on exactly what to do when your shots aren't falling. The Atlanta Hawks were the anti-Derrick Roses on Friday. The "jump shooting" Hawks as Joe Johnson calls them kept on shooting jumpers and more jumpers and missing and missing and missing.
Rose had 34 points despite shooting 9-for-24 from the field to lead the Chicago Bulls to an easy 94-76 win over the Hawks on Friday night at the United Center.
Luol Deng had 18 points for Chicago, which won its fifth straight game and 18th of 19 on their home court. The Bulls moved to within a half-game of the Boston Celtics for the No. 1 seed in the East.
To think, the Hawks were actually in this one and actually lead 50-48 at the break. But after Kirk Hinrich connected on a bucket to start the second half, the Bulls went on a run, while the Hawks couldn't by a bucket.
Rose lead the charge with 18 in the frame, creating points by posting up inside and drawing contact. After the Hawks honed in on Rose's inside game, he got some looks outside and drained some shots from the field. That's exactly how the game of basketball is supposed to work, isn't it?
Well, that is unless you are the Hawks.
Atlanta's offensive set included jumpers, jumpers and more jumpers. Even though they were connecting on less than one out of every four shots from the field at one point in the second half. Their perimeter game lead to turnovers and poor shot selections. Chicago took advantage with easy transition buckets.
The rest was history. Atlanta was outscored 46-26 in the final 24 minutes of the basketball game.
Johnson had 16 points and Josh Smith added 14 for Atlanta, which dropped its fourth straight game.