By Sean Mackey
The Bulls added their 31st win to the season Monday night, defeating a shorthanded Milwaukee Bucks team 92-83. Kurt Thomas surprisingly lead way for Chicago scoring 22 points along with tallying 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Derrick Rose had a decent game going 10-10 from the free throw stripe, scoring 21 points on 5-16 shooting and also added 10 assists. Chris Douglas-Roberts lead the way for Milwaukee scoring 30 points.
This was another ho-hum affair that Bulls fans are getting accustomed to. Kurt Thomas held Andrew Bogut to just 8 points and with John Salmons, Brandon Jennings and Drew Gooden out, this was hardly a contest. The Bulls briefly held a 20 point lead in the 3rd quarter before slacking off and letting the Bucks cut it to 6 in the 4th. Luol Deng and Ronnie Brewer couldn't stop Douglas-Roberts but it didn't really matter. It was really nice to see Derrick Rose get to the line 5 times making up for all those missed shots. Great players always find a way to score and Rose is starting to get the calls he deserves. It should be noted that after the game, Rose admitted that he's been nursing a sore back. I'm not sure how bad it is but Rose hasn't been shooting terribly great lately. The Bulls have the next three nights off before taking on Orlando Friday night. The Bulls lost to the Magic by 29 in their last meeting back in December, hopefully the 3 days rest will help Rose and the rest of the team re cooperate.
While it's great to see Chicago rack up wins against teams, the last two months have been kind of hard to watch. After playing a series of really tough games against title contenders the first month and a half, it seems like Chicago has been taking on some rather boring, below .500 opponents. February and March will be a lot harder and the Bulls need Joakim Noah back at full strength to compete with some of the better teams in the league. Kurt Thomas just isn't going to cut it against guys like Kendrick Perkins, Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan.
The Bulls take on the Orlando Magic at 8:00 p.m. Friday night on CSN Chicago and NBA League Pass.
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