"A win is a win"

Derrick Rose goes up for a reverse layup against the Mavericks on Thursday night.

It wasn’t pretty, but its hard to be unhappy about a positive outcome. Derrick Rose was just happy to escape with a win as the Bulls beat the Dallas Mavericks 82-77 on Thursday night.

“A win is a win, “ Rose stated after the game. “Everything that went on in that game was kind of terrible, except the way we played defense.”

The defensive effort was solid, holding a Mavericks team to 36 percent shooting and forcing 15 turnovers. Dallas was coming off a win over the Lakers that snapped a 6 game losing streak. Dirk Nowitzki put up 19 points for the Mavs and Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler and Deshawn Stevenson scored 12 apiece. It was Nowitzki’s fourth straight start after missing more than two weeks with a knee injury.

The Mavericks, ranked fourth in the NBA in opponents points per game, also played great defense while holding the Bulls to just 37 percent shooting. Derrick Rose was the only Chicago player in double figures, and he wasn’t exactly burning up the nets while shooting 9-for-28 from the field. His pull up jumper with 55 seconds left gave the Bulls an 80-77 lead and Kyle Korver made two free throws after Terry missed a three pointer that sealed the win for Chicago. While Rose did shoulder most of the scoring load, this game was different than the lackadaisical effort against Charlotte on Tuesday night. For instance, Luol Deng scored only seven points on 3-13 shooting, but lead the team with 12 rebounds and played solid defense when defending Nowitzki, who is considered one of the best players in the league.

“That’s what I love about Luol, he can play effectively when he is not shooting well. He is always doing other things like tonight, rebounding the ball for us,” Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. Thibodeau was not happy with Rose’s offensive hesitation in the first half and challenged him to take more shots after Rose put up only eight shots in the first half, making four of them. Rose went 5-20 in the second half, but his willingness to try and ignite the offense is what his coach was looking for.

“Coach was mad because he didn’t think I was shooting enough [in the first half],” Rose said. “So I just tried to be aggressive in the second half."

Dallas’ effort was also commendable, and Coach Rick Carlisle was pleased that Rose had to work hard for his points.

“He scored a lot of points, but he had to take 28 shots to do it,”Carlisle said. “Our guys worked hard.”

The Bulls are off tonight before the Cleveland Cavaliers come into town on Saturday. The Cavs could be just what the doctor ordered, considering they have the league’s worst record at 8-33 and have lost 24 of their last 25 games. Cleveland, who knocked the Bulls out in the first round of the playoffs last year, is the first team in NBA history to have the league’s worst record at the midway point during the season after having the best regular season record in the NBA the season before. Carlos Boozer is expected to return to the lineup for Saturday night’s game after missing the last three games with an ankle injury.