Dec. 04--The Bulls improved to 12-7 with Wednesday's 102-95 victory over the Charlotte Hornets. Here are three observations.
Derrick Rose isn't attacking the rim as often.
Rose attempted 12 shots against the Hornets. Seven of them were from 3-point range. Rose did have a third-quarter stretch in which he flashed his penetration skills. And he played a solid floor game with five assists and two turnovers in just under 28 minutes.
But Rose penetrating typically is more effective than Rose shooting from beyond the arc, where he is a career 31.3 percent shooter. Is Rose reading the defense properly or settling?
"I want him to be instinctive," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "When he pushes the ball, we get easy baskets and that's huge for us. But if he's open, I don't have a problem with it. I like the balance that we have. A lot of our 3-pointers are coming out of the post.
"What I did like a lot about the way he played was the way he passed the ball. He made a lot of good plays early on. I thought that got Mike going and led to us being high-assist, low-turnover. We were in good rhythm."
Nikola Mirotic is both tough and funny.
After having his ankles not just broken but shattered, falling over while trying to defend Kemba Walker on a crossover dribble, Mirotic responded with two big plays in the fourth quarter. His traditional three-point play and a corner 3-pointer highlighted a 15-4 run that gave the Bulls a 10-point cushion.
"His rebounding was huge and the big shot in the fourth, we needed that," Thibodeau said. "He ran the floor a couple times and those easy baskets are critical for us."
Mirotic finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds in his third career double-double. But he saved his best performance for last, tweeting that his ankles were OK and that he just needed to ice them. He also credited Walker for a good play.
The rebounding has improved.
Remember that slow start to the boards battle? The Bulls outrebounded the Hornets 49-42 and, quietly, have outrebounded eight of their last 12 opponents.
Though second-chance points aren't as critical as last season, when the Bulls were last in offense and desperate for any scoring, the Bulls' improved rebounding has allowed them to own the edge in that category 10 times in the last 14 games with one tie.
