Rose Scores 32 In Win Over Suns; Donates $32,000 To Haiti

Written by Joseph Tames Saturday, 23 January 2010 00:33

Phoenix, Ariz.—January 22, 2010. Before tonight, the Bulls’ Derrick Rose was 2-0 against the Suns. Make that 3-0 as Rose scored 32 points in a 115-104 win over the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center.

Before the game, Rose committed to donating $1,000 for every point he scores against the Suns to the Bush/Clinton Haiti Fund. His 32 points is 10 points over his average against Phoenix.

Phoenix came into this game leading the NBA in field goal percentage with 48.9 percent. However, it was the Bulls that shot over 50 percent from the field while holding Phoenix to 38.5 percent. It was only the sixth time Chicago has shot 50 percent or better from the field in 41 games this year.

Phoenix started the game shooting poorly and couldn’t do anything to fix it. The Suns shot 10-16 from the field and ended the quarter done nine points. Rose had 10 points in the first 12 minutes, contributing to Chicago’s 62.5 percent shooting.

The Suns turned it around in the second period, but still went into the locker room at halftime down 10. By the end of the third quarter, Phoenix was only down five at 88-83. The game went back and forth until Phoenix was within three with 3:37 left. But that was all the hope the Suns had. The Bulls went on a 15-7 run to close out the game.

Besides Rose’s 32 points, Chicago got 23 points from former Sun draft pick Luol Deng. Joakim Noah score 19 points (eight points over his average); Kirk Hinrich and John Salmons both scored 14.

Amar’e Stoudemire led the Suns with 23 points, followed by Grant Hill’s 17. Hill has scored 14 points or more in six of the last nine games after doing to seven times in the first 36 games of the season. Channing Frye added 16 points, including four key three-pointers to keep the Suns within striking distance. Jason Richardson contributed 12 points.

Steve Nash was held to nine points, but it was his third assist of the game that was note-worthy. With three assists, Nash moved past Rod Strickland to eighth place on the NBA’s All-Time Assist list. Nash finished the game with seven assists, giving him a career total of 7,992 assists. Nash is second among active players; Former Sun and current Dallas Maverick Jason Kidd is in second place all-time and first among active players.

Phoenix (25-19) plays the second game of a back-to-back tomorrow night, Saturday, January 23, 2010 against the visiting Golden State Warriors (13-28). Tipoff is 7:00 pm MST.

The Chicago Bulls (19-22) travels to Houston to play the second game of a back-to-back against the Rockets (24-18).