Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
The Chicago Bulls had just wrapped up their best regular season sinceMichael Jordan and Scottie Pippen collected their final championship, and Derrick Rose was in no mood to celebrate.
He’ll save it for later.
Kyle Korver came up big down the stretch to finish with 19 points, Rose scored 15 and the Bulls won their ninth straight, beating the New Jersey Nets 97-92 in the final playoff tuneup on Wednesday.
“I’m happy, I’m definitely happy,” Rose said. “I wouldn’t like to be on a losing team, but what’s the point of celebrating now when you can get knocked out in the playoffs?”
The Bulls earned home-court advantage throughout the playoffs later Wednesday with San Antonio’s 106-103 loss to Phoenix. Had the Bulls and Spurs tied for the best record, a random drawing would have decided the overall No. 1 seed because all the tiebreakers were even.
The Bulls led by as much as 13 in the second quarter and were up seven at the half, but found themselves trailing 68-58 after the Nets scored 15 straight midway through the third. They responded by running off 10 in a row to close the period and pulled this one out in the end, with Korver scoring seven in the final four minutes.
Rasual Butler scored 10, including the go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minute, and the Bulls got 50 points from their bench on a night when the starters spent much of the fourth quarter on the bench.
Rose was just 5-of-13 from the field. Luol Deng scored 11. Joakim Noah finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds as the Bulls finished 62-20, equaling their best showing since the 1997-98 championship season. That also put Tom Thibodeau in a tie with Paul Westphal of the 1992-93 Phoenix Suns for the most wins by a first-year coach.
“I’m happy for our team,” he said. “I think they made a serious commitment. They played hard, and they played for each other.”
WRITTEN BY STATS LLC and The Associated Press & FULL STORY HERE
