The Cavs lead the Bulls 49-45 at the half, but Derrick Rose was firing in the first quarter when Chicago got out to a 28-26 lead.
Rose scored 11 of his 15 first-half points in the opening 12 minutes, matching the 11 scored by LeBron. But Rose was a tad more efficient (4/6 vs. 4/8) and certainly more spectacular with the way he put the ball in the bucket. Witness the mid-air decision to switch hands in an effort to avoid Timofey Mozgov’s outstretched arm:
Right now, we’re just cackling with delight any time a Bulls fan compares Rose’s bucket to MJ’s iconic layup in the 1991 Finals. We actually think D-Rose’s was more difficult to pull off, but the context of MJ’s was so much bigger all analogies go into the ever-growing brain mush pile from NBA Twitter.
Still, this was very fun to watch:
