Bulls avoid yet another letdown to edge Clippers
CHICAGO — After three straight losses and a string of fourth-quarter collapses, the Chicago Bulls danced dangerously close to another massive letdown Thursday night against the Los Angeles Clippers.
But instead of a deflating loss, Derrick Rose (sans mask) came alive in the fourth and staved off a 16-point rally to hold on 83-80. The loss would’ve been even more painful considering Los Angeles rallied after Blake Griffin was ejected for clotheslining Taj Gibson on an attempted block in the third quarter.
"I saw it. I saw (the replay)," Gibson said. "I'm old-school, man. It’s basketball. You’re gonna get hit. The first thing that happened, he reached down and made sure I was okay. ... It’s no big thing. It’s basketball."
Los Angeles went on a 12-0 spurt at the start of the fourth quarter, the result of four consecutive 3-pointers to tie it at 66. Two came via Josh Smith, Griffin’s replacement, and it certainly had the feel of Chicago’s last three losses in which they’d been outscored 102-70 in the fourth quarters combined.
There was hardly any positive energy around their play, and the team’s body language was awful as it tried to avoid its first four-game losing streak since December of 2013.
Their issues were only exacerbated as the offense continued to struggle, an epidemic rookie coach Fred Hoiberg was expected to fix. On the national broadcast of Wednesday night's 105-100 loss to the Boston Celtics, ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy even floated the idea of bringing former coach Tom Thibodeau back as an "offensive coordinator." The offense entering Thursday was ranked 20th in the NBA, and the 35% shooting effort won’t alleviate any concerns.
"It’s huge when you lose a coach like Thibs, but coach Fred, he has all our respect," Rose said. "It’s different when you lose three, especially with the team that we have and the goals that we set as a team."
Instead, at least for one night, they didn’t have to answer questions about another failure.
Rose, playing the second half for the first time without his mask — the result of a fractured orbital bone suffered in the preseason — cut baseline and finished a timely pass from Jimmy Butler to make it 78-72. Moments later he was freed up on a pick-and-roll with Pau Gasol and banked in a high runner to ice the game.
"It was my decision," Rose said of ditching the mask. "When I went out there, play started, I forgot to put it on, and I said, 'You know what? I’m just going to leave it on the side.' And it worked out for me."