The Chicago Bulls defeated the Oklahoma City 103 to 96 in Oklahoma City to get a much needed road win.

The Bulls in the first half were led by Ben Gordon, who scored 16 points in the first half, and was just scoring at will. Gordon had a rough second half, and finished with 18 pointso n 8-17 shooting. This was a game where Gordon kind of had Derrick Rose syndrome. He shot a respectable 47.1 FG%, but finished with a poor scoring efficiency because he failed to get to the free throw line a bunch of times and failed to make any three point field goals.

Derrick Rose, however, took over in the second half. Rose scored 22 of his 25 points in the second half. He was just unstoppable in the second half, his jumpshot was falling. When Rose plays well, the Bulls usually win, and tonight was one of those nights.

This game was especially important because of the implications on rookie fo the year. Rose was going head to head against another rookie of the year contender, Russell Westbrook. Westbrook finished with 15 points on 6-16 shooting, and also had 6 assists. Having a great game against a fellow ROY contender is a good way to secure the award.

John Salmons was good as always, finishing with 20 points on 8-15 shooting. Salmons has played so well that it is time to give him a nickname, well at least an attempt to give him a nickname. I hereby dub the great John Salmons, “Salmonella”. You better watch out for Salmonella, because he might just infect your team with a loss.

Brad Miller played well once again. He finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Tyrus Thomas was solid, finishing with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 steals. Thomas failed to get a block in the game, so his streak of blocked shots ends at 29 games. His front court counterpart, Joakim Noah, had three blocks in the game.

For the Thunder, Kevin Durant had 28 points on 9-21 shooting. Jeff Green added in 18 points.

The former Bulls, Thabo Sefolosha, finished with 6 points, 3 steals, and 4 blocks.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 32-37 on the season. They still site securely in that eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

Closing Comments

Tonight was a good win for the Bulls. Yes, it was against the Thunder, who aren’t very good, but have been playing better as of late. But we need to start out with some wins against teams like the Thunder. The bottomline is that the playoffs are there for the Bulls taking, and not just that, but potentially the Bulls could move up into that 4 vs. 5 matchup. We’ve seen the Bulls go on late season surges in the past, and this season may prove no differnet. We have 9 games at home, against many mediocre opponents. We aren’t exactly playing good teams on the road, with Washington, Toronto, Indiana, and Detroit being the remaining teams. At the beginning of the season we all looked at the stretch run as being an easy set of games that will help us secure a playoff spot. This seems to be the case. Good win Bulls, now go follow it up against the Lakers on Saturday.

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Tags: Ben Gordon, block streak, Brad Miller, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Jeff Green, Joakim Noah, John Salmons, Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder, Rookie of the Year, Russell Westbrook, Salmonella, Thabo Sefolosha, Tyrus Thomas

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