Derrick Rose: One Man Army

Imagine the following: You're a rookie NBA basketball player, with one year of post high-school basketball education. Your facing an army comprised of a 3 time NBA champion, the best player in the league and top 10 NBA player of all time (Kobe), his coach- a 9 time NBA champion, a point guard who has won 3 titles, an All-Star PF (Paul Gasol), and legit young center big man (Bynum). Your army? It consists of a midget at SG (Ben Gordon), an ordinary SF (Deng), an overrated PF (Gooden), and the smallest-big man center in the league (Noah). Essentially, you're an army of one. You're Derrick "the Bermuda" Rose.

Despite those odds and facing probably the deepest bench in the NBA (the Lakers), Derrick "the Bermuda" Rose put up the following stat line (25 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds and only 2 turnovers). (Quick tangent. Lets get this Bermuda thing started. Bermuda is some kind of rare rose. Also, it makes sense because defenders are lost trying to guard Derrick Rose, or since he's so fast, he disappears from defenders -ala Bermuda triangle-. Seriously, people worth with me.) Rose's assist total would have been 20 if Luol Deng could shoot an open jumper. That's pretty impressive considering the Bulls place so much pressure on Rose to make things happen. They ask him to run the offense, create offense, and score points. Yet, he does it so effortlessly and with the calmness of a veteran. I guess I'm getting caught up with Rose and I don't want to over hype him. But he looks like the real deal. So what about those other case of characters?

Deng played good defense on Kobe early on. But he was woeful on offense. He couldn't do anything and had trouble hitting open shots. Ben Gordon put up 23 points, but was only 6-22. Not good. This is what happens when a bigger and better SG is defending you. Larry Hughes was no better. He looked as interested as a Alec Baldwin at a Sarah Palin rally.

The Bulls put up 109 points, but gave up 116. It was an inspired effort against the Lakers. But if the Bulls can't play better defense, they are going to continue to lose games on this Circus trip. They're just not good enough to out shoot good opponents.