Bulls Beat Mavs in Defensive Struggle

Tom Thibodeau, the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, is known for being a master of teaching defense. On Thursday, those defensive teachings were on full display against the Dallas Mavericks. In a tough, defensive struggle, the Bulls defeated the Mavs by a final score of 82-77 in front of their home fans in Chicago.

Derrick Rose led the game in scoring with 26 points. He also added nine assists, seven rebounds and two blocked shots. However, he missed 18 of his 28 field goal attempts. As a team, the Bulls shot 36.9% from the field. Rose wasn’t the only player on Chicago who was struggle with his shot. In fact, no other player on the team scored in double figures.

For the Mavs, they had it even worse offensively. They shot 35.6% from the field and only Dirk Nowitzki scored more than 12 points — but even he missed ten of his 16 shots from the field.

Said Rose: “A win is a win. Everything that went on in that game was kind of terrible, except the way we played defense.”

With the win, the Bulls hold the third seed in the Eastern Conference behind the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat. The Mavs, despite losing seven of their last eight games, are tied for third in the West with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz.

Derrick Rose and the Bulls won with defense (Image: TSN.ca)