Are The Bulls Too Reliant On Derrick Rose?

Bulls’ fans are pretty happy to have escaped from game one of their first round eastern conference playoff series with a win. The Pacers lead the Bulls on the road in Chicago for nearly the entire game. They were leading by 10 points with only 3:38 left in the fourth quarter. The Bulls took their first lead with 48 seconds left in the game at 102 to 99 and never relinquished it. However, the Bulls may have shown a chink in their armor despite the late victory.

Indiana Pacers forward Danny Ganger said before the playoffs that he would rather play the Bulls in the postseason than the Celtics because the Celtics have a variety of weapons, while the Bulls are very reliant on Derrick Rose. He said, "Chicago, they go as Derrick Rose goes. If you make a concerted effort to stop Derrick Rose, you have a better chance of beating them." Rose defended his teammates by saying, "My teammates, they're around me. I think we play good together. That's his opinion. I've got winners on my team and winners know how to win."

However, the Bulls looked very reliant on Derrick Rose to create the bulk of their offense in game one against the Pacers. Outside of Rose, who scored 39 points, the Bulls struggled to score. Boozer was 4 of 11 from the field and only had 12 points, as he was limited with 5 fouls. Joakim Noah was 5 of 12 from the field and only had 10 points. Keith Bogans was 0 of 3 from the floor and didn't score. Luol Deng may have been the only bright spot outside of Rose, as he scored 18 points. In the third quarter, Derrick Rose scored 12 points, while the rest of the Bulls only added 8 points.

Derrick Rose is confident however that his team will play a much better game on Monday at home. He said, “We came out sluggish, they got the lead and we couldn’t get it back till the end of the game. But we’re going to learn from this, watch film, come together and try to control the next game.”