The Chicago Bulls defeated the Charlotte Bobcats tonight by the score of 98-89, and they are now in the 2010 Playoffs. Before the game, the Bulls were depending on either a win or a Raptor loss in their game with the Knicks on Wednesday night. Toronto did win, but however that remained irrelevant as Chicago cruised in their game in Charlotte.
The Bulls were shooting the ball confidently from the start of the game. Kirk Hinrich picked up two early fouls, and Flip Murray played a little but out of control. But once Murray responded with two consecutive threes after a timeout, Chicago took control once again. Derrick Rose led the way with 27 points and Noah once again looked like an All-Star himself, with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 assists. Brad Miller took a hard shot in the 4th quarter and slowly walked off the court, but it did not appear to be a very serious injury.
The Bulls should take a lot of pride in their play over the past month. They came back from 2.5 games back with just a couple weeks left in the regular season. They went on a storm since dropping 10 consecutive games. Some teams would call it quits after a phase like that, but Chicago ended by going 10-4 in their last 14 games. They pulled their season together after Luol Deng and Joakim Noah returned from their injuries and match their record of the previous year at 41-41.
Hopefully the momentum will carry over to this weekend, when they open up the post-season against their first round opponents: The reigning MVP LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Chicago fans are going to need to hope that history repeats itself who have dominated the Cavs in all of these teams previous playoff bouts. Obviously, Michael Jordan isn’t there to ensure the dagger gets stuck in, but hopefully the Bulls can manage to make this an interesting series.