For the most part this was a game with one thing pretty clear: one of the these teams in a contender for the title and the other was not. While the Boston Celitcs managed to put a rally on the second half of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, "Derrick Rose happened" and the Bulls shut that rally down to pull away. 

For a large part of the game the Bulls were in absolute control, but for a nine-minute stretch, it was Boston dominating the game. With Chicago ahead 61-41 Boston went on a 25-6 run to get within one point. That's when Derrick Rose decided he'd had enough. 

Rose scored seven straight points to give the Bulls an eight-point lead. Then he missed a shot with Joakim Noah the only one under the rim, and Noah put it back in. After Pierce drained a pair of three throws, Rose drained another three. 

During Boston's run Rajon Rondo was irritating Rose, getting under his skin, getting away with fouls, making steals, flopping like a fish and just generally being Rondo. I mean that in a sort of good way. He's the dirtiest, most low-down nasty and sneaky little gremlin players in the NBA, but he's very good at getting away with it. 

There were two significant steals during the run. One was closer to a tackle that he got away with and came down and scored. The other was an honest steal where he came up behind Rose and just knocked the ball away. 

Other than that, my impression of Rondo as a defender was reinforced. He's way overrated as on-ball defender. His notion of defense is throwing his head back and diving onto the ground every time the opponent drives past him. 

Enough ranting though. Rose absolutely dominated him the fourth quarter, and while Rose's offensive numbers were really impressive in the fourth, scoring 12 of his 25 points, the more impressive numbers were Rondo's—that is, his 0-of-1 from the field. 

That's it. Zero rebounds. Zero assists. Zero points. Rose utterly and completely shut him down. 

The other encouraging sign was Noah played tonight. When I see that I mean Joakim Noah played tonight, not that doppleganger who's been wearing his uniform most of the season. He was his energetic, defensive monster, rebound-grabbing self tonight. 

Noah had 10 points, 12 boards and four blocks on the night. The other half of the frontcourt tandem, Carlos Boozer, who also has come under fire lately, had a solid game as well scoring 12 points and eight rebounds. 

Ronnie Brewer had another solid game in relief of Rip Hamilton. He racked up 12 points, four boards, four dimes and three steals on the night. 

The entire starting five scored in double figures. 

With apologies to the MVP though, the player of this game had to go to Luol Deng, who seemed to be on a mission to prove that he deserved to be in the All-Star Game over Paul Pierce. Deng was a complete monster tonight, scoring 21 points and grabbing 16 boards. 

Meanwhile Pierce had just 13 points and one board, though he did have five assists to Deng's two if you want to count that. It's hardly the equalizer, though. 

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Deng was clearly better than Pierce, and that's the dang truth. 

The weird thing about this game is that the bench mob didn't actually do very well, particularly Taj Gibson and Omer Asik. I guess they were tired from all those fourth quarters they've been playing. 

The Bulls have been chalking up the air miles this year so far. They played their NBA-high 10th road game. They are 7-2 in those games, giving them the most road wins in the NBA and the second-best road win percentage. Oklahoma City is 5-1. 

In fact, the Bulls have played more road games than the Clippers have played games period. How's that for a quirk of the schedule?

Another sort of quirk is they played their 13th game on Friday the 13th. 

Chicago will be back in action tomorrow night against the Toronto Raptors at the United Center, where they hardly ever play anymore. Only Cleveland has played fewer home games. 

The upside of this though is that we're coming out of this road heavy stretch with the best record in the NBA. Things even out now as the Bulls will play six of their next eight at home.

Also, while a number of the teams they've played so far were playoff teams last year, the only playoff team they face over that stretch is Memphis, whom they already beat by 40 this year. 

While there's always a chance they could "pull a Golden State" there's a good chance they could win their next eight, or at least go 7-1. 

After that the Bulls face the Joker, Penguin, Lex Luther and the rest of the villains known as the Miami Heat.