Bulls pull even in series, Beat Hawks 86-73
Photos and Story by Dan Peters

More awards for the 2010-2011 Bulls

The Chicago bulls played a much harder game this time. A tougher defense and a similar offensive game were the key to beating the visiting Hawks. As they have done in previous games, the Bulls pulled out to double-digit lead most of the game, only to have Atlanta chip away at that lead.

Clutch play from the “Bench Mob” stopped the threat and the Bulls held on to even the series at one.

Clutch defensive play by Luol Deng was again key to the victory. Deng met Johnson high after Johnson had hurt the Bulls in the Hawks Game 1 win with 34 points. “I was more into him,” said Deng. “I wanted to make him a driver. I knew the help was there, so just don’t give him a lot of space and then when he gives up the ball try to deny him.” The Hawks’ scorers don’t like pressure defense, which the Bulls only discussed in Game 1 but failed to provide.

The New MVP of the NBA

Derrick Rose honored in pre game ceremony. Commissioner David Stern awarded Rose the MVP hardware.

Rose, meanwhile, can now focus on the task at hand. The past few days were a whirlwind for the Chicago product, with the news about his winning the MVP breaking, the formal announcement on Tuesday and the presentation tonight.

“I’m just happy that it’s over now, and we can just ball out,” Rose said

He’s just fine, so he say’s

After a scare at the end of the first playoff game loss, Derrick Rose’s ankle seemed to be fine. “I’m fine,” said Rose. “I feel my confidence is real high. Shots I normally hit just did not fall. The way they are playing me (loose and laying off), I’m going to continue to shoot, things are going to change. I’m fine as long as we win. I’m just trying to go out and play hard and play together and put up a good fight. We came out aggressive on both ends making sure they took tough shots. We’ve got to continue to hustle because things are just going to get harder.”

Too many distractions?

Too many awards and distractions with coach of the year and MVP. “I’m just happy that it’s over now, and we can just ball out,” Rose said. I believe that is a good thing. There’s the other teams raising their game in the playoffs thing while the Bulls played at a playoff level all season. The Bulls have had much more trouble running an unhindered offense. And there’s the fatigue issue of playing so hard during the season and not having enough left. None can be proven, of course, and remain less than informed speculation. And, of course, the simple notion that the Bulls were overachievers and it is all catching up to them.

What’s up with Carlos Boozer?

“Carlos is giving us everything he has,” said Thibodeau. “He’s nicked up. He’s playing hard. He’s on the boards. The rebounding is huge. We need that rebounding. His offense will come around.”

The players have his back as well. “I think it’s very hard sometimes,” said Noah. “Our home crowd, it (can be) a tough place to play. We have a lot of love for our crowd. Through tough times we’ve got to stick together. I’ve been in this position before. My rookie year I was booed. It’s tough being booed in front of the home crowd.

It’s important for us to stick together. We’re trying to represent this city, this team as well as we can. We’ve got the MVP. Derrick is doing a great job being a leader and representing the city. With Carlos, people have to understand he’s playing through an injury right now. He’s giving us what he’s got. He’s somebody who has an unbelievable presence. He opens up a lot of things for us. Sometimes people are quick to bash one player. But this is a team and we know we need Carlos to get where we want to go.”

The Hawks as a team, failed to accomplish what they did in the first game of the series

“Nothing we haven’t seen,” said Crawford. “I just think we didn’t handle it correctly. I’m not worried. I think we’ll be fine in Games 3 and 4. We usually shoot better at home. We came here to get two. We got one. We’ll go back to Atlanta and take care of business.”

“They came out and applied pressure,” said Atlanta’s Jeff Teague, who scored 21 points without a turnover. “They got up into us. They made every catch we got tough. They came on Joe (Johnson), double-teamed him a lot. Kind of frustrated us as a team, because he got it going the first game.”

It’s on to Atlanta for games 3 and 4. The Bulls won’t have their home crowd there to give them the edge; they will have to rely on the play of the youngest MVP in league history and the stout defense to carry them to victory.

Noah a fan favorite before, during and after the game...

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