* Something interesting to watch before the game was Lindsey Hunter joking around with Ben Gordon and Tyrus Thomas. Both of the Bulls younger players were soaking up the knowledge Hunter had to share and it was a great example of a veteran player taking some younger teammates under his wing.

* On the flip side of that, something else that caught my attention in the Bulls locker room was how secluded Larry Hughes was from his teammates. In the locker room he had his headphones on blasting music while playing with his cell phones – yes, I intended to make cell phones plural – and then on the court warming up before the game Hughes was the only player on the far side of the court while a handful of his teammates were on the other side.

* Last month I wrote about Jay Triano still working out with Chris Bosh prior to games and tonight I noticed Triano wasn’t doing this. It could have just been an anomaly tonight or it might have been all those additional media sessions finally cutting into his time.

* Tonight Chicago Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro inserted Luol Deng back into the starting line-up and he explained this move to the media by saying, “He’s not fully recovered, I just felt like he’s at the stage now where we had a couple of practices and things where we need to get him back out there and try to bring our rhythm back a little bit.” If Deng wasn’t back to 100 per cent it was hard to tell because he was a huge force for Chicago tonight while leading the team in rebounds (14) and contributing 16 points.

* It’s tough to find an unique spin on Derrick Rose but Raptors head coach Jay Triano has one because he had the chance to coach Rose briefly last summer. When asked for his thoughts on Rose’s play this summer Triano boasted, “He was quiet coming in and then he gets out there when the games start and he just knew how to score. He was going against some pretty good point guards in Jason Kidd, Deron Williams and Chris Paul, yet he was finding a way to score. Any time our select team stalled – which it did against that team – he was the bright light. He helped produce points very quickly.”

* Derrick Rose had 17 points in the fourth quarter and seemed to will his team to victory. He went 7-for-8 from the field in the fourth quarter on a dazzling display of shots. When asked about his scoring explosion tonight which saw him score a team high 25 points, the modest Rose explained, “I just knew that by attacking the basket it would free things up and I just got so close to the basket. My coaches and teammates always tell me if I get that close to the basket to shoot the ball and that’s exactly what I was doing.”

* Before the game Triano was asked by a member of the Chicago media about what it was like to move a couple seats over this season from being an assistant to the head coach. Instead of dropping the normal cliches Triano dropped some great insight when he told the media, “I’m not finding it very much of a change. The whole time I was sitting on the bench, even as a broadcaster back in my (Vancouver) Grizzlies days, I would play situations in my mind. Do I take a timeout here? Do I think that guy is looking a little bit tired? I think that I always coached in my mind and now that I’m doing it out there it feels like I’ve done it a thousand times.”

* Another interesting tidbit came when Triano confessed to the media, “For the assistant coaches it’s the purity of the game because it’s all you do all day. You work with players and stuff like that. With being the head coach you have different responsibilities and I completely enjoy it, but it’s a little bit different meeting with Bryan (Colangelo) to discuss potential trades and you’re meeting with the media. There’s a lot more variety in the things you do on a given day. But game days are great and I love coming to the gym and getting ready to play.” Hearing this has to make Raptors fans wonder if he has a desire to be a head coach in the NBA past this season or if he would prefer to slide back into the role of being an assistant coach.

* There was a series midway through the second quarter where the Bulls had four offensive rebounds before Luol Deng put the ball in the basket. After the game Deng was asked about his game high 14 rebounds tonight and he told the reporter, “I just really tried to play with a lot of energy. I thought the last few games, sitting down and watching, we didn’t play with a lot of energy so one thing I wanted do was play with energy.”

* Speaking of energy, I was shocked at how calm the Bulls locker room was after the game. Despite holding on for a huge road win after losing eight of the past nine on the road, the Bulls locker room was eerily quiet.

* One of the biggest plays of the game came from Joakim Noah who swatted Chris Bosh’s shot in the final minute of the game. After the game Noah was swarmed at his locker but he missed this media horde form due to his head being down. When he raised his head to address the media he gasped “wow” and then a huge grin spread from ear-to-ear. Noah was asked to give his thoughts on his block and he explained that, “It was the last possession of the game and I just knew he was going to try to pump fake. He does that a lot so I didn’t go for his first pump fake and the shot clock was going down so I knew he had to get it up so I got my hand on it.”

Final Score: Chicago 102, Toronto 98

Photo Credit: Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos.