So far the lone bright spot in a very boring (as usual) preseason came last night. In the form of an electric 30 point performance by Derrick Rose against the Cavs achieved by doing whatever he wanted, like old times and that has his teammates feeling really good. Per ESPN.
Taj Gibson was feeling nostalgic:
“It [brought] up old memories, man,” Bulls power forward Taj Gibson said happily. “Just a good positive thing to take from this game. Derrick looked great.”
Tom Thibodeau was feeling positive:
“You’re talking about an MVP-caliber player,” Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “So it makes the game easy for everybody. He’s getting easy baskets in transition, he’s attacking in the pick-and-roll, he’s in the paint making plays, so it’s a positive.”
Joakim Noah was feeling something special:
“It feels great,” Bulls center Joakim Noah said of Rose’s performance. “Just seeing him move like that is big for our team. He’s definitely one of our big guns — he’s our big gun — so just to see him play like that, I know how hard he’s worked to get there. I just feel like if we just keep improving we can do something special.”
Of the performance the always low key and understated Derrick Rose down played his superb game.
“The team is feeling more comfortable with me being on the floor,” Rose said. “Feeling comfortable with me just picking my spots, getting people involved and just trying to pick spots in the game where I can really affect the game.”
The Bulls did end up losing to the Cavs, but this is one of those rare times that a moral victory occurred for the defeated side and it wasn’t a bunch of hooey.
