He got a little winded after the first five minutes, but Derrick Rose is finally back in the playoffs after an excruciating three-year absence. He’s not resting behind the three-point arc, either, but attacking the rim like the Rose of old.
Besides his above end-to-end jaunt for his first basket of the game, he also lasered a skip pass dime to Mike Dunleavy for the short corner three.
But never was Rose’s attack-first mentality more apparent than his bucket blitzkrieg in the second quarter.
He started things off by toasting Michael Carter-Williams going to his left:
Let’s look at that again because he hangs in the air to avoid the rotating OJ Mayo before finishing:
Next was this tricky little scoop shot after he lost the ball in the lane.
This time he burns MCW going to his right, and then reverses to the left. HOT DAMN, he’s looking frisky.
How about some Rose defense to offense? Here, Rose deflects a pass and gets out on the break with Jimmy Butler, sending in the no-touch dunk to punctuate the sequence.
The last bucket in his perfect 5-for-5 quarter, came after he slithered through a crowded lane for another reverse lay-in:
After four straight buckets, Rose — usually very reserved on the court — gestured to his hometown crowd that he’s just as jacked as the fans watching his retro performance.
The Bulls are amped, Rose is ready, and we’re just so happy to have him on the court in the postseason.
The entire bench is standing up after Rose scores four in a row. Rose comes to the bench waving his arms to get crowd pumped up.
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) April 19, 2015
As of this writing, Chicago leads Milwaukee 62-57 three minutes into the third session.
(Vines via Gustavo Vega and Becca)