Rose needs longer run in fourth quarter

After a rough finish to a winnable game against the Bobcats on Tuesday, there are several nitpicking opportunities. In case you missed it, the Bulls lost 113-108 despite Derrick Rose scoring 10 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to erase an 11-point deficit.

--The rotation could stand some tweaking when it comes to Rose in the fourth quarter. The second-year guard absolutely has the right idea by waiting until the fourth quarter to take over games. He’s got to keep his teammates involved early.

But it’s tough when Rose enters the game with 7:39 left, like he did at Charlotte. The Bulls could have used a couple more minutes of Rose in full attack mode.

He played all but the final 43 seconds of the third quarter, got a normal rest and then came back. So take him out two minutes earlier and bring him back sooner.

For the record, the Bulls held serve while Rose was on the bench in the second half, keeping a 7-point deficit.

--A couple of subtle strategy calls seemed to hurt the Bulls down the stretch. After being burned by Rose drives several times, the Bobcats finally trapped on the pick-and-roll, forcing him to give up the ball and resulting in a 3-point miss by Kirk Hinrich. This was the possession after Flip Murray put Charlotte ahead 107-105 with 1:43 left.

So it seemed as though the natural response was to forgo the pick and just clear some space for Rose to operate. But Noah came over again to set a screen, the Bobcats again trapped Rose, making him give up the ball. This time, John Salmons drove and had the ball slapped off his leg out of bounds for a turnover.

Granted, Salmons played very well overall Tuesday, hitting 7 of 12 shots for 19 points.

The Bulls had a third possession trailing by 2 and Rose drove to the basket, but had his shot blocked by Boris Diaw. On the ensuing inbounds play, Rose made the pass and found Hinrich, who missed an open 15-footer. If Hinrich was the passer and Rose the shooter, would it have turned out differently?

--The Bulls definitely got some tough calls in this game. Tyrus Thomas was hit with a goaltend and technical foul in the second quarter when he blocked a shot while getting his free hand caught in the net.

You see this called sometimes when a player grabs the rim and uses it to pull himself a little higher. Typically, that’s not a technical foul, though. But Thomas’ hand-net collision had nothing at all to do with the play, so it’s reasonable to think it should have been ignored.

The worst call I saw was a charge against Rose as he hit a tying layin with 5:51 left. There appeared to be no contact on the play, but the refs fell for Stephen Jackson’s fake fall.

--I’d really like to see Jannero Pargo get some playing time. He sat out for the fifth straight game Tuesday.

What doesn’t make sense is Pargo was brought in to provide a scoring boost off the bench, which is exactly what the Bulls are lacking most of the time.

He tends to run red hot and ice cold, but when Pargo has his shot going, the chances of a Bulls win increase substantially.