With their former MVP, Derrick Rose, still glued to the sideline, the Chicago Bulls leaned heavily on their pair of first-year All-Stars to even their first-round series with the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night.
It wasn't pretty, but it was Tom Thibodeau's brand of basketball through and through. Behind a team-wide suffocating defensive effort and a heroic, one-legged performance from Joakim Noah, the Bulls managed a 90-82 win over the host Nets.
Luol Deng played the role of silent executioner for Chicago, pouring in a team-high 15 points to go along with 10 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and a steal in 42 minutes.
But the boisterous Noah resoundingly stole the show, even while hampered by an ongoing battle with plantar fasciitis and a subsequent minutes restriction. He had 11 points, 10 boards, three assists and two blocks as Thibodeau afforded him just 29 seconds over the high end of his team-imposed 20-to-25-minutes restriction.
As the intensity increased in the waning moments, so too did Noah's production (via Bulls radio producer Jeff Mangurten):
A bruising defensive effort in the third quarter gave Chicago a 22-11 advantage in the period, breaking open what had been a back-and-forth battle throughout the opening 24 minutes. But a pair of fourth-quarter Joe Johnson triples sandwiched around a C.J. Watson layup brought the Barclays Center to life as the Nets trimmed the deficit to just four with a little over four minutes left in regulation.
Chicago's All-Star big man had no intentions of letting the game slip away, though. Whether crashing the offensive glass, diving out of bounds for loose balls or protecting the rim, Noah's determination allowed the Bulls to become the first team to tally a road win in this postseason.
It was the type of effort that tears through the biased-based walls of personal affiliations, via Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press:
Thanks to an uncharacteristically rough shooting night from Deron Williams (eight points, 1-of-9 from the field) and Johnson's inconsistency (17 points, 6-of-18), the Bulls guards were able to focus on Brooklyn's All-Star big man Brook Lopez, its lone consistent source of production (21 points, 7-of-14).
And while the Nets perimeter players struggled to find any offense, the Bulls found just enough from Kirk Hinrich (13 points), Nate Robinson (11) and Marco Belinelli (eight).
But Chicago's fiery leader emerged as the story of the game, one that already had some, like CBSSports.com's Matt Moore, attaching some superhuman qualities to it:
ESPN's John Schuhmann attached a much more grounded meaning to the game, although offered equal praise for the former Florida Gator:
As for what it means to Chicago's chances to advance to the second round, that's a story yet to be told. Noah has played only 38 minutes in the first two games of this series, and despite Monday night's stat line, he remains worlds removed from 100 percent.
Via: [Live -] Online - TV] Astra Ploiesti - Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt - Romanian League 1
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