Game 28- New York Knicks vs Chicago Bulls
United Center, Chicago
When the game tipped off between the Knicks and the Bulls, Lin Yi and Joakim Noah stepped into the circle. Noah's eyes were blazing, full of that wild, intense energy he was known for. Right before the jump, he even let out a roar, like he was casting a buff on himself.
Typical Noah.
Too bad none of that mattered. Lin Yi's long arm flicked the ball cleanly, just like muscle memory. Douglas caught it smoothly and started bringing it up the court.
In the stands, the Bulls fans roared in unison, led by the arena DJ:
"DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE!"
United Center was rocking tonight. The energy was off the charts.
On the Knicks' first possession, Lin Yi stepped up high to set a screen for Douglas.
Pick-and-roll incoming?
Noah and Rose exchanged a glance. Noah, still in fighting shape—none of that late-career coasting—reacted quickly. The screen didn't work. Douglas bailed out, swinging the ball to Lin Yi for an iso at the high post.
Lin Yi didn't know Noah personally, but he'd watched plenty of tape. Noah was passionate and aggressive, so Lin Yi went right at him.
Noah locked in, eyes virtually firing lasers like he was trying to kill Lin Yi with just a stare.
But Lin Yi stayed cool—tap, tap, tap—his body swaying side to side. He jabbed right, waited for Noah to bite, then suddenly snatched the ball the other way.
Noah was done.
Killer crossover.
Vintage Tim Hardaway vibes.
He blew by Noah and stormed into the paint, instantly drawing Ty Gibson's attention.
Gibson charged to help, but Lin Yi wasn't phased. He took a hard step, then dropped the ball behind his back with a slick bounce pass.
Right on cue, David Lee cut in, scooped it up, and laid it in—easy money.
Just like that, the Knicks cracked the Bulls' defense.
The truth was that this Bulls squad wasn't some Thibodeau-coached defensive machine. Under Vinny Del Negro, they tried to slow the game down and limit possessions, but their defensive schemes? Kinda basic. Predictable.
After the Knicks scored first, it was the Bulls' turn. The Knicks rolled out a loose zone look to try and contain Derrick Rose.
But man... Rose didn't care.
He was Windy City's answer to a hurricane.
Even when the path looked blocked, Rose just kept going. Douglas couldn't stay in front, and Lin Yi dropped back to wait inside.
Yup—this was the Rose he remembered.
No time to get nostalgic, though. Lin Yi timed his jump to block, but Rose twisted mid-air with one of those insane double-clutch layups.
Missed it.
Lin Yi grabbed the board. Just one play in, and he already had a feeling: They weren't losing tonight.
And he was right.
Six minutes into the first quarter, Lin Yi already had 7 points, 4 boards, and an assist before checking out.
Super efficient.
The Knicks were up 21-9.
The Bulls? Just 9 points total—8 from Rose and 1 free throw by Hinrich, thanks to a Knicks' three-second violation in the paint.
Back on the bench, D'Antoni gave Lin Yi a pat on the shoulder.
"Well?" the coach asked, eyes on Rose.
Lin Yi shrugged. "Excellent but not efficient."
D'Antoni nodded. "Yeah. If he were on my team, I wouldn't let him force it like that."
If Rose fans from the future could hear that, they'd riot.
Calling the youngest MVP in league history inefficient?
Blasphemy.
But honestly... it was true.
In Lin Yi's memory, Rose shot around 45% for his career. Solid, sure—but not elite. People remembered the highlights—those wild drives and monster dunks—but not the misses.
Rose's attacks looked unstoppable. That first step was nuclear. The contortions in mid-air? Unreal. But during his MVP season, he finished 61.1% at the rim.
Compare that to Steph Curry's second MVP year?
69.6%.
Almost 70%
Facts over flash.
In the future, Rose did have a season where he finished at the rim at 69.6%—but let's be real. That was during his stint with the Timberwolves, coming off the bench, in a 9-game sample size. Doesn't count for much.
Now, if you look at their careers overall—Curry vs. Rose—Curry's rim finishing? About 64.6%. Rose? Just 57%.
That's not a small gap.
During Rose's best finishing season, he averaged 5.8 shots at the rim per game and made 5 of them. Curry, in his best season at the rim, averaged 4.6 shots and still made 4.6 of them.
But the difference between Curry and Rose was that he went through traffic every night. That's fine when you're young and flying, but long term? It's brutal.
Now, to be fair, a big part of that wasn't just Rose's style—it was the Bulls' roster. Even during Thibodeau's time, they had next to no spacing. Their three-point shooting was, bluntly, garbage.
Take this season, for example: the Bulls were averaging just one made three per game. That's not a typo. One. They took a few more, but even then, they were shooting way below league average.
So what happened?
The defense just packed the paint. Rose would drive, find no kick-out options, and be forced to go it alone, over and over again.
And that's where his biggest weakness showed up: he just wasn't good at drawing fouls.
Sure, some people blame the refs or say he never got the superstar treatment. But even in the season when the league wanted to promote him, he only got to the line 6.9 times a game.
Drawing fouls isn't as easy as people think. There are only a handful of guards in NBA history who mastered it— cough, cough, James Harden.
Rose wasn't one of them.
Instead of absorbing contact, he tried to twist and spin away from defenders. Double-pump, reverse, circus layups. It looked amazing—but if it didn't go in? Wasted effort. No whistle, no points.
Driving to the basket takes a lot out of you. Most big men finish around the rim at 60–70%. Rose, doing the same from the perimeter at around 50%? That's a losing battle.
Under Thibs, Rose's numbers got a little better.
But that improvement didn't last.
Thibodeau tried to reshape Rose's game, but... the damage was already being done. Rose wasn't built for that grind, at least not long term. His style of play was always going to be high-risk.
People compared him to Wade, but Wade had a different build. That guy could absorb contact. Rose, for all his talent, just couldn't take the same kind of punishment night in and night out.
So yeah, after just one intense sequence with the Bulls, Lin Yi already had a sense: they're not winning this one.
The Bulls were built around Rose, but their whole approach just wasn't smart. Their tactics were outdated, and Vinny Del Negro? His playbook was stuck in the '90s.
Meanwhile, the Knicks just stuck to their defensive schemes, kept feeding Lin Yi on offense, and controlled the tempo.
Game over.
Not because Lin Yi was some unstoppable force—though he was damn good—but because he just understood the game better. He saw the angles, read the patterns, and made the right plays.
By the end of the first quarter, the Knicks were up by 18.
Rose looked frustrated, like he was trying to run uphill in a hurricane. But Lin Yi? He was already floating above the clouds.
Too bad for Rose...
This sky wasn't his to fly in.
T/N: RIP TO THE GREAT DIKEMBE MUTOMBO.
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