Derrick Rose is no longer the man. But at least in Game 2 of the 2021 NBA Playoffs series against the Atlanta Hawks, he was for the New York Knicks.
With their best player struggling and throwing enough bricks to build New York another arena while at the same time facing the bleak possibility of falling in a 0-2 hole despite being the higher seed in the series, the Knicks turned to Derrick Rose.
The former MVP answered the call, delivered the goods, and perhaps most importantly, did more than enough to keep their sense of competitiveness up high even though the game script was starting to bolt away from their favor.
The Hawks were up by 13 at the half, but that lead surely would have been larger if not for Derrick Rose, who ended the first half with 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the floor. Julius Randle was expected to be the one establishing the tone for New York after a letdown performance in Game 1, but he actually looked worse when he went 0 of 6 from the field and scoring just a grand total of two points in the first two quarters.
Randle played many-folds better in the third quarter, where he scored 11 points, but at that point, the Knicks were not done getting a boost from Rose, with the guard adding 10 points more while playing the entire 12 minutes in the period.
Derrick Rose has suffered devastating injuries to both his knees, but you wouldn’t be able to tell it with the minutes Tom Thibodeau is giving his former go-to guy in Windy City. Derrick Rose is averaging 38.2 minutes in the series. Without those minutes, the Knicks likely are headed to Atlanta with the Hawks flying with a 2-0 lead. Rose didn’t just save the Knicks, but he also mitigated the storm of criticisms Randle is getting from the media to talk more about his throwback performance in Game 2.
Derrick (Rose) & The Morti-fied Hawks Squad
Derrick Rose ended his night in Game 2 with a team-high 26 points on 9-of-21 shooting from the field. The Hawks really had no answer for him thus far in the series. Rose has been able to get to his sweet spots against the Hawks, and they couldn’t keep him from slashing.
Despite his well-documented injuries, Rose can still dig into his deep pocket of layup packages. He is still just shooting 45.9% from the fir field in the series, which is credit to the Hawks’ rim protection. But when Clint Capela isn’t the nearest Hawks defender to him, Derrick Rose has been overwhelmingly spectacular.
The matchup tracker over at NBA.com isn’t the be-all and end-all reference when it comes to determining a player’s success against individual defenders, but get this: Rose is 6 of 11 in the series against Bojan Bogdanovic; 4 of 4 against Danilo Gallinari; 2 of 4 against Kevin Huerter; and 2 of 3 against Tony Snell. Those are perimeter defenders that Rose is constantly blowing past by. Most of Rose’s misses were when he’s already found his spot only to be challenged by Atlanta’s bigs like Capela (1/7) and John Collins (1/4). Even then, Rose is 9 of 15 at the rim overall.
Thibodeau might just have to continue giving heavy minutes to Rose. He’s clearly outplayed Elfrid Payton, who continues to start for whatever reason. Rose is much more experienced than Immanuel Quickley, who can also be wildly inconsistent.
After Game 2, Thibodeau had the following to say about Derrick Rose (and Taj Gibson), via Paul Schwartz of The New York Post.
“Both [Rose] and Taj have been in a number of playoff games,’’ Thibodeau said. “I think they understand it. We have some guys that haven’t played playoff games. They’ll get better as we go. There’s only one way to get playoff experience, and you gotta get it. Each game I think they’ll get better. I think you learn from each game, each situation. But I think the fact that those guys have been in big games before is a big plus for our team.”
Making The Garden Bloom
These are fun times for Knicks fans. Their team is in the playoffs for the first time in what feels like 100 years. Not only that, but the Knicks are also the higher seed in the first round. This team greatly overshot preseason expectations, and on Wednesday night, after a heart-wrenching loss in Game 1, the Knicks sent the entire Madison Square Garden into a frenzy as though everyone from the crowd just won the lottery.
No, they did not.
They were just treated to the Derrick Rose experience.
Follow Us
Subscribe