The Chicago Bulls had another matinee game today against the Toronto Raptors today. This one was on the road.

It looked like the same road weary Bulls as usual, as they fell behind early. But behind clutch play of Ben Gordon and Derrick Rose, as well as the contributions of Kirk Hinrich, Tyrus Thomas, and Brad Miller, the Bulls were able to fight back into the game.

With the Bulls down 116 to 115 with 19 seconds left, Ben Gordon took a quick shot to try to give the Bulls the lead. He missed off back iron and Rose got the rebound and missed an easy layup. Tyrus Thomas then proceeded to be blocked.

The Bulls fouled Jose Calderon, who made two free throws to make it a 118 to 115 Raptors lead. The Raptors then fouled Derrick Rose to avoid giving up a three. Rose made both free throws to make it a 1 point game. The Bulls then fouled Anthony Parker who split a pair of free throws at the line, making it a 119 to 117 game.

Then Ben Gordon dribbled across the court and then shot a fadeaway jumper over Chris Bosh to tie the game at 119 as the time in regulation expired to bring the game into overtime.

A lot has been made out of that being a bad decision by Gordon, but I think it’s a good one. The Bulls were down by 1, so you want to take a quick shot to give yourselves the opportunity to get an offensive rebound, or foul. Gordon had a pretty good look at the basket too. The Bulls did end up getting two offensive rebound chances, and fouled, which allowed them to get the game into overtime. If Gordon takes that shot at the end of regulation and misses, the Bulls lose, no overtime.

Ben Gordon had ample space on his shot with 19 seconds left.

In overtime, Derrick Rose scored 6 points, all on layups. With 8 seconds left and the Bulls down 129 to 127, Rose turned the ball over as he tried to bounce the ball into Tyrus Thomas. The result was ugly, but it is good that Rose is thinking more on these end of posession plays, rather than just throwing up a layup that probably would have been blocked. He just had to make a better pass, but if he had treaded the pass through, Thomas would have gotten a dunk, and was in a situation in which the player who dunks usually gets fouled. So good idea by Rose, just bad execution. The Raptors would then go onto win it 134 to 129.

Ben Gordon was terrific today, scoring 37 points. He hit big shot after big shot, including the shot that brought the game into overtime. Gordon had 27 of his points in the second half.

Gordon today, is officially the greatest young three point shooter in NBA history. With his 2 three point field goals he passed Nick Van Exel for the most three pointers by a player in the first five years of their career. Gordon currently has 751 career three point field goals and has seven more games to extend that record.

Derrick Rose was great as well today, scoring 23 points on 9-13 shooting and dishing 9 assists. He hit a lot of big shots as well, and just looked good out there.

John Salmons only had 10 points. he wasn’t able to get a large volume going, but he was still efficient,

The Bulls got 16 points from Joakim Noah and 14 from Brad Miller. Tyrus Thomas had 11 points and 4 blocks.

Unfortunately for the Bulls, Chris Bosh also had a monster game. He finished with 31 points and 15 rebounds.

Andrea Bargnani poured in the points as well, scoring 28 in the game.

Jose Calderon had an impressive 22 point and 19 assist game. He tied the Raptor’s record for most assists in a game.

Shawn Marion gave the Raptors 16 points and Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who will join Gordon and Deng on the Great Britain National Team this summer.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 36-39 on the season and fall to eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

Closing Comments

Today wasn’t a horrible day for the Bulls. Yes, they lost to a bad Toronto Raptors team (although you wouldn’t think they would be bad with the talent on their roster), but the fashion in which they lost wasn’t horrendous. The Bulls have that never say die attitude again, and that is encouraging. It was also encouraging to see Derrick Rose have another big game as we move towards the playoffs.

I thought the Raptors strategy of using Chris Bosh to guard Ben Gordon was a smart one. Gordon still made some big shots, but that’s because he’s so good at those circus shots because he practices them. But even with Gordon being good at those types of shots, a Gordon fadeaway has better odds of being a miss than a square jumper.

Overall, this is still a disappointing loss for the Bulls, as they had a lead pretty late in overtime and had a chance to steal this one. This truly would be a steal given that the Bulls didn’t have a lead in the game until overtime. It was a road game, so you somewhat expect the Bulls to lose, but the Raptors have been bad all season, although better as of late. Hopefully the Bulls can bounce back in their road game against Indiana on Tuesday.

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Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Anthony Parker, Ben Gordon, Brad Miller, Chicago Bulls, Chris Bosh, Derrick Rose, John Salmons, Jose Calderon, Kirk Hinrich, Toronto Raptors, Tyrus Thomas

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