Rose on last play of loss: 'Put that all on me'
MILWAUKEE — Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose took the blame for the team’s 92-90 loss at the buzzer to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on Saturday night.
Rose had a chance to win the game — and close out the series — in regulation but had the ball stripped away by Bucks swingman Khris Middleton in the final seconds without getting a shot off. Bucks coach Jason Kidd called a timeout after the play with just 0.8 seconds left on the clock. Officials added 0.5 after the timeout, which gave the Bucks just enough time, 1.3 seconds, to draw up a play to win the game. Bucks small forward Jared Dudley threw a pass into guard Jerryd Bayless under the rim as Rose lost sight of Bayless. The mental gaffe left Rose in disbelief after the game.
“I put that all on me,” Rose said. “Just wasn’t paying attention to the ball. … But if anything, this is a learning experience. I don’t feel bad for myself; I feel bad for my teammates. Knowing that we could have forced the overtime and I messed things up. But I swear I’m built for it.”
Rose’s mistake wasn’t the only one for the Bulls on a day when they turned the ball over a season-high 28 times, but it was the most costly. Rose and his teammates remained upbeat after the game, but the former MVP, who turned the ball over eight times, took this defeat personally.
“Tonight was a hard one,” Rose said. “We had twentysomething turnovers; I think I had like 20 of them. It felt like 20, but the only thing I can do right now is just learn from it, watch film and come ready next game.”
The decision to add 0.5 to the clock came back to bite the Bulls. Once Rose lost Bayless, Dudley had enough time to float the pass into Bayless for the basket that would continue the series.
“In the playoffs, that’s like a whole minute,” Rose said. “You see we came back in two minutes or something like that. So [the loss is] devastating, but you get to play again. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it, to tell you the truth. I can’t believe it.”
Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said he tried to call timeout before Rose made his drive to the rim on the Bulls’ last possession.
“I actually was trying to call timeout there, and I didn’t get it,” Thibodeau said. “But in that situation, I don’t mind. Derrick had the ball and and open floor. If he sees something, nine times out of 10 he’s going to make a great play. It didn’t work out for us this time, but like I said, it didn’t come down to that play. It didn’t come down to the last play. There’s a lot of plays throughout the course of the game that we’re going to have to do a lot better on.”
Rose said he felt like if he had been able to get the shot off, “it was going to go in.” Now, the Bulls must regroup heading into Monday night’s Game 5 at the United Center, but Rose believes he will be able to do it. He played his best game in recent memory in Thursday night’s Game 3, double-overtime thriller — scoring 34 points in 48 minutes of play — so he knows he can play at a high level as he continues to make his way back from a Feb. 27 meniscectomy.
“When you give up a layup for the game winner, it’s hard,” Rose said. “It’s hard. But I’m happy that I got the teammates that I have, the coaching staff that I have. And like I said, I really believe that I’m built for this s—.”
Rose said he wasn’t going to let the last play hang with him heading into Monday’s game.
“It’s gone,” he said. “It’s gone. If this were the last game or Game 7, it would have been totally different. We play again soon, so [I’ll] get this game out of my mind.”
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