GAME STORY / PICTURES / BOXSCORE
Mavericks (130) @ Bulls (135) (2 OT)
Noah, Bulls beat the Mavericks in a double-OT thriller.
Noah pulling down one of his 29 rebounds with Nowitzki and Chandler in the background.
October 28, 2010 (CHICAGO) - The Bulls hosted
Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks for the opening game of both of the teams. The game deciding factor was undoubtably the difference in rebounds taken, as Chicago pulled down 57 rebounds, 19 of which were offensive, compared to the Mavericks total of 49. The clear player of the game was
Joakim Noah, who clawed a stellar 29 rebounds, 12 of which were from the offensive board. Noah also scored 20 points on 8-21 shooting.
The game got off to a competitive start as
Caron Butler had carried the Mavericks to a one point lead by the halftime, scoring 17 points in the first half alone. Butler finished the game with 25 points and 8 rebounds, shooting 9 from 25 from the field and hitting all 7 free throw attempts. The person that kept the Mavericks in the game when it mattered the most, was their clear leader and captain,
Dirk Nowitzki, who had a solid, 22 point, 12 rebound game. 12 of his points came in the two overtime periods.
None from the Bulls team stood out in the first half, but everything was balanced nicely and the bench did their job well enough, too. In the second half,
Joakim Noah started beasting, in the third- and fourth quarters, plus the overtime periods, Noah grabbed a total of 22 rebounds and scored 15 of his 20 points. Boozer, Rose and Brewer also started to show up as the second half began. Boozer finished the game with 24 points and 8 rebounds on 11-19 shooting. Rose was the highest scoring player in the game, but wasn't too efficient as it took him 29 shots to score 32 points. Rose also had 7 assists to go with the points, he was 13-29 from the field, 2-4 from the three point line and 4-7 from the charity stripe.
Ronnie Brewer, on the other hand, was efficient with the 19 points he scored, he was 9-14 from the field and hit the only three point shot he took.
From the bench, most of the credit will go to
C.J. Watson and especially
Kyle Korver, who hit the game-tying three pointer at the end of regulation with just 2 seconds on the clock. Both Watson and Korver finished with 7 points each. Watson also dished out 4 assists. The regular season debut for the Bulls first round draft selection,
Hubert Lefevre, was far below average, at best. In 12 minutes, he scored 2 points, grabbed 2 rebounds and also managed to get 2 assists on his name. It sounds pretty solid, but he also did 5 fouls in the 12 minutes of his, and managed to shoot 7 times, hitting only a single fast break layup. He missed all of his three attempts from downtown.
With a minute and a half to go in the first overtime period,
Jason Kidd recieved a wild elbow in the middle of his face from
Luol Deng, causing Kidd to be down for a good fifteen seconds and also making his nose bleed. The incident happened accidently as Deng ran full speed towards the basket before suddenly crashing into Kidd, who was trying to get a charge. Kidd didn't return to the floor thanks to what seemed to be a broken nose.
"I'm not satisfied with how the team played on the defensive end," said the Bulls head coach, Tom Thibodeau. "We allowed too many easy baskets and many of the shots late in the game were wide open. It's not late in the season, in which case, fatigue could be an issue, but in this game, everyone seemed to have enough rest to be able to put in more effort on the defensive end. I'm happy with how Jo played, though. He missed a couple of easy looks, but he was a beast on the boards."
"The Bulls executed their play nicely to get Korver the wide open shot. I won't find no excuses, I was slightly late to put a hand up, but the screen that Korver got from Boozer was really nice." said the Mavericks starting 2 guard,
Caron Butler. "I think they were lucky, though. Most of the players had a good day, while we didn't play nearly as well as we could. We're still the better team.".
Rose getting by Nowitzki for the layup.
Kidd at the foul line in the end of fourth quarter.
Korver's game tying shot to push the game to overtime.
Rose putting the game away at with two clutch free throws.
Other games from 28th October;100 : Denver @ Boston : 94
C. Anthony, 40 points, 14 rebounds, 18-26 shooting.
K. Perkins, 25 points, 11 rebounds, 5 blocks.
87 : LA Lakers @ Detroit : 86
P. Gasol, 25 points, 13 rebounds, game-winning layup
T. Prince, 18 points, 11 rebounds, 5 blocks
93 : Memphis @ Orlando : 99
R. Lewis, 23 points, 10 rebounds
Z. Randolph, 29 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks
O. Mayo, 30 points, 12-18 FG, 3-5 3PT
94 : Minnesota @ Miami : 107
L. James, 31 points, 12 rebounds, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks & steals, 4-5 3PT
C. Bosh, 32 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, 15-22 FG
D. Milicic, 22 points, 9 rebounds, 9-12 FG
R. Bell, 18 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals
111 : Houston @ Atlanta : 79
K. Martin, 25 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals
A. Horford, 17 points, 15 rebounds
87 : Golden State @ Charlotte : 100
T. Thomas, 20 points, 19 rebounds, 4 steals & blocks
M. Delgado, 31 points, 5 assists, 13-19 FG
A. Biedrins, 21 points, 12 rebounds, 9-12 FG
I'll be following, cause I like Bulls too. Get DRose, that MVP award 
But as I've been told thousands of times, I would make the text a little shorter.
