3 times. That doesn't mean Rose shouldn't try. He is normally a killer. If LeBron stops him I'm okay with it. I just wanted him to try and was disappointed once again that he didn't.

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Hey, his toe hurts.

this game tore my fucking heart out. i would have preferred to lose by 10+... and it sure seemed being down ~8 with ~2:12 left or thereabouts that we were on the path to do so.

but then.... drama. i called the forced lebron brickage (seriously, COACH SPO, if you're gonna let one of your guys sit on the ball til there's ~8 secs on the shotclock left and then force an iso, shouldn't it be wade? or is this some kingbuilding exercise for lebron?) missed freethrows (i called derrick missing the 2nd. there's no way he was gonna make that, especially after hte first miss came when he was 11-11 at the line. that killed him) the refs throwing up their hands like "we got nothing... let them jump for it and god will figure it out" and more missed free throws...

and then the most galling thing of all... down 2 with 9secs left the bulls inbound at half-court and have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the heat... i mean, derrick heard footsteps of lebron guarding him as he was wide open but did that extra pivot move before missing the floater.

this just... hurt. it's a meaningless regular season game i knwo the bulls have nothing for the heat in the playoffs... but it kills me to see derrick running on fumes/empty pouring out his heart and soul but he's physically/mentally EXHAUSTED at the end of games like this cuz he has to do everything all game long and at the end of the game, with lebron on him, he runs out of energy and everyone is like LOLOLOLOLOL DEBRICK ROSE WHAT A BITCH!#!$#@$#@$

but you damn well know if he had more help it'd be a different story... being the #1 scorer on a championship team isn't his ideal game... but c'est la vie. at least he goes down fighting.

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Billups and Sheed were the 4th quarter guys for those Piston teams, not Rip.

He's a top 5 player in the NBA and improving. Just started his fourth year. We all remember Kobe's airballs against Utah years ago. I'm not slightly worried about Rose at this point.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I know Kobe is cut from a different cloth but there was no doubt Kobe was going to be in attack mode regardless of the results. The problem isn't that Rose failed it's that he didn't try at all. That's alarming.

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If only they had Drew Gooden.

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

Alarming? Wasn't he the one who went to the line to take the lead with 20 seconds left and then the one who took the last shot? This is typical "24 hour news cycle era" overreaction at this point. Rose isn't halfway through his career like Lebron is yet.

Edit: Also, according to Kobe, Rose is one of only two other NBA players cut from the same cloth he is. (CP3)

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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FF if you want to make excuses for what Rose did the last 6 mins of the game (with LeBron guarding him) you can. Fact of the matter there is a pattern with him and LeBron. I've pointed it out the last 3 season and hope it ends. There wasn't a guy on the planet that could make Kobe timid.

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The last three seasons??? So in Rose's rookie season(in which you expected 10-5 averages) he didn't measure up to Bron and you were calling him out on it? That's cool.

He's at the beginning of his 4th season. MJ was still the entertaining highlight machine that showed GOAT potential but also might never win the big one at the same stage in his career. Have patience Nastradamous.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

What's so hard to understand here? If Rose is never as great as LeBron I'm okay with that. If LeBron shuts him down every time he guards him ultimately I can live with that. I'm not and never will be okay with Rose not challenging him. That's what Rose didn't do and it's alarming. Kobe and MJ had a ton of failures but they never lacked the confidence to attack anyone.

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do you think it is a coincidence that lebron owns kobe in the head to head match ups?...lebron is bigger faster and stronger than rose and kobe and can shut them down when he wants..like at the end of the games

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Kobe is shutting LeBron out in the only career competition that actually means something. Until LeBron wins the last game of an NBA season he is just another great player, nothing more.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Rose took the last shot of the game and shot FT's on the second to last possession of the game. What are you talking about?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

LeBron has had a better team. LeBron has never shutdown Kobe and he didn't shutdown Rose today. Rose took himself out of the game.

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Did you watch the game? I'm really not trying to be an asshole with that question. I am being one. After the Bulls tied the game LeBron guarded Rose on the next possession. There were 6 mins left in the game and the Bulls had the momentum. Every possession down (that wasn't a fastbreak) Rose passed the ball to Rip. He didn't even attempt to take LeBron off the dribble. Even as the game was starting to slip away he still didn't. On the last play he was open but his fear of LeBron made him hesitate.

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"Fear of Lebron"

Of course I watched the game. Rose isn't a black hole like someone like Arenas. I like that. He gets his guys touches down the stretch but with the game on the line he's usually the one taking the shot. Before Jordan started winning titles he would play the last six minutes of a game how you want. While he he was winning them he played the way I just described down the stretch. Rose is fine.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Agreed, when's the trade deadline? Maybe D Rose was trying to give Coach Thibs and GarPax(sp?) a preview of the Eastern Conf finals and asking that maybe they upgrade his 4th Q gunnery mate by the trade deadline.

We're going to disagree again but there is clearly a pattern of Rose being timid against LeBron and not being the killer we're use to seeing.

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last season and this season are probably the only times that lebron had a better team than kobe ...and both times lebrons team is finishing ahead of l.a.

rose is hurt and probably 80%..i don't even want him playing in these games. i didn't want rip here..too old but hopefully he gets hot in the postseason though i doubt it.

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Rip's shot isn't falling consistently but he did a helluva job on defense and the way he forces Wade to chase him around the court can only help the Bulls in the playoffs.

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The problem with the Bulls is that they needed Watson and Deng to win this game. The officiating was absolute garbage, which only matters in a close game. In the crunch time the Bulls shriveled up, missed some free throws, dropped some balls and missed some shots. If the Bulls are going to beat the Heat they need to finish the game strong. They can't expect Derrick to make every shot at the end of the game. The offense can't get stagnant and they need other guys to hit some shots. With the last shot why not let Korver take a shot for the win? Rose shouldn't get sucked into the "Who's the man?" one-on-one basketball with LeBron. Superstars are superstars, but it's the team that wins the game and not one player.

_________________
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The thing about Miami is that while they do play good half-court defense, they don't do so well when they are forced to run set offense. If you can keep them from getting cherry picker baskets and easy dunks, they have to earn their points. The one reason I think Watson not playing was a factor was that Rose got tired because he couldn't rest like LeBron and Wade during the game.

_________________
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Absolutely it sucks to have to chase Hamilton around the floor for 12 minutes out of the first 3 quarters--but I thought D Rose wanted and the Bulls were looking for a 4th Q 1A option on offense? A Ray Allen or, at the low end (in terms of minutes), Robert Horry type guy. That's never been Rip Hamilton.
Not sure what they were thinking. And maybe Rose tonight was trying to throw it in their (GarPax/Thibs) faces that Rip is not the 1A guy he needs in the 4th Q to free him (D Rose) up.

Heck, Jimmer Fredette or Ali Farokhmanesh might've been better bets to hit a 3 in the 4th quarter than Rip Hamilton.

^^^^^^ It was too easy see the reaction coming before the game even started.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

If Rose is gonna be a super star he's got to stop things like that from happenning.

Just like he should have stopped it in the Game 5 choke last year.

Superstars stop runs like that by at least exchanging baskets.

If Rose is able to be completely swallowed up by any ONE player in the league then he is not a superstar.

The notion that Rose got "bottled up" at the end of that game is ridiculous. As FavreFan has pointed out numerous times, the guy shot the final two FT's and had a chance to tie the game at the end.

So what is the issue here? What more do we want in this scenario?

Is it the mentality of "Rose should have taken over and never allowed the game to end the way it did"?

Why not just say "Gee, I wish Rose score 80 points throughout the game so the Bulls could have won by 30. But because he didn't, he's obviously afraid of LeBron."

Whatever.

No, its absoluetly accurate. Did you watch the game? He totally changed the way he was playing the minuite LeBron started guarding him.

Completely different. LeBron totally bottled him up.



Except the 5 and a half minutes before that when he did nothing.




Yes, that IS the mentality. Its not a wild thought. NBA stars throughout the history of the league have done it.


No that's not it at all. Not even close. Its not unreasonable to ask the MVP of the league to close a game.