On Sunday, Dec. 25 the Chicago Bulls opened the season against the Los Angeles Lakers with an 88-87 victory.

The game came down to the final seconds with Derrick Rose once again showing why he was the league’s MVP last season and someone who deserved his recent contract extension.

With the Bulls trailing by 11 points, they rallied within the last four minutes for the win.

In the first quarter, the Lakers jumped on the board first and initially kept it tight. After seeing an eight-point lead, they surrendered it and the Bulls ended the quarter leading 22-20.

For the second quarter, the Bench Mob kicked things off before the starters slowly returned. The teams continued to exchange leads but the Bulls moved ahead to enter halftime with a 56-49 advantage.

They maintained their lead through the third quarter until the 5:18 mark when the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant tied it at 63. The lead went back and forth with Los Angeles closing the quarter with a 69-68 lead.

During the fourth quarter, the Lakers extended their lead to11. With less than four minutes remaining, the Bulls really lacked energy but started to claw their way back with defense and shots. Rose kicked off the comeback with a basket, followed by Luol Deng’s dunk. He also got hot on the free throw line.

With 20 seconds remaining, it was a one-point game. Deng stole the ball from Bryant and Rose hit the game-winning shot with four seconds left. Bryant quickly launched one last shot but again, Deng came through and blocked it.

It was game over for this Christmas miracle.

Scoring…Rose led the team in scoring on Sunday with 22 points and five assists followed by game MVP Deng with 21 points and seven rebounds. Carlos Boozer added 15 points.

New Bulls teammate Rip Hamilton is finding his way within the team’s chemistry. On Sunday, he scored six points in his first start.

At times he looked frustrated, but he should be a great and much-needed addition.

Next up for the Bulls is a Monday, Dec. 26 game against Golden State.

As a lifelong Bulls fan and Chicago local, it’s good to have the Bulls back.

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By Tom Ziller

– NBA Editor

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Dec 25, 2011 – The Chicago Bulls finished the 2010-11 season with the best record in the league — an incredible 62-20 mark. But that didn’t much matter in the playoffs: the unheralded Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks each pushed Chicago fairly hard, and the Miami Heat walloped them in the East finals. The Bulls know they can dominate the regular season, but now they have to aim for success in the second season.

The L.A. Lakers typically know all about success in the second season; the Lakers have been strong on the regular schedule during the team’s recent run of success, but L.A.’s veterans seem to crank it up another notch in the postseason. That didn’t happen in 2011: Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets shaved two games off of the Lakers in the first round, and Dallas Mavericks beat them down in Round 2.

Chicago Bulls at L.A. Lakers
Sunday at 5 p.m. ET on ABC
Blog-a-Bull | Silver Screen And Roll

That’s how these teams enter the 2011-12 season: ready for revenge. Unfortunately, the Lakers come in wounded. Kobe Bryant has been diagnosed with a torn ligament in his right (shooting) wrist, and given that Kobe refuses to let things heal properly, he’ll likely be dealing with it all season long. Further, the roster has been injured: Lamar Odom requested a trade after the Lakers had the audacity to consider trading him for Chris Paul. So Odom went to the Mavericks for nothing but a future second-round pick, which means that your new back-up power forward in L.A. is either Josh McRoberts or Troy Murphy, not the reigning Sixth Man of the Year.

Andrew Bynum is suspended for the first four games of the season, including the Bulls’ opener. Chicago ought to be playing with a full deck, as free agent pick-up Rip Hamilton will replace the waived Keith Bogans as the team’s starting two-guard. The Bulls didn’t have Carlos Boozer to start the 2010-11 season; imagine how much better they could be with a injury-free roster.

The game tips off at about 5 p.m. ET on Sunday on ABC. We’ll have full coverage at SBNation.com.

Read More: nba christmas, Kobe Bryant (G – LAL), Derrick Rose (G – CHI), Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls at Los Angeles Lakers, Dec 25, 2011 5:00 PM EST

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DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP)—Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were stocking the
trophy case the last time the Chicago Bulls were this good.

Derrick Rose wants to add to the collection.

The league’s youngest MVP has his sights set on the biggest prize of all as
the Bulls get set to open the season Sunday on the road against the Lakers.

Chicago came close last year but ultimately fell short, losing to Miami in
the Eastern Conference finals after winning 62 games during the regular season.

“Our goal is to win a championship, and I think that we have a decent shot
with the guys that we have coming back,” Rose said. “I have a lot of belief in
my teammates, and I know that they have a lot of belief in me and a lot of
confidence in me as a player. That’s all we need.”

The Bulls boast the reigning MVP in Rose and Coach of the Year in Thibodeau.
They won more games than any other team during the regular season after
back-to-back .500 records and first-round playoff exits under Vinny Del Negro.
Even so, it all seemed like an incomplete thought, a sentence without the proper
punctuation.

They were looking for that championship exclamation point—and they still
are. That five-game loss to Miami lingers.

“Last year was definitely an unbelievable experience, a lot of highs and
lows,” Joakim Noah said. “Being able to play in those big games against Miami
was great, but it was definitely hard to lose the way that we did. It took me
awhile to get over it. I watched the games a lot in the summer. It was very
disappointing, but at the same time, it definitely makes you hungry.”

The Bulls have plenty going for them, and they might be better equipped to
withstand the condensed, lockout-induced sprint of a schedule with Rose leading
one of the deepest rosters.

They addressed their need at shooting guard by signing Richard Hamilton,
giving them another scoring option and the height they were seeking to match up
with Miami’s big wing players. One concern: At age 33, the 6-foot-7 Hamilton is
coming off a difficult season with Detroit. But he also helped lead the Pistons
to a championship during his nine-year run with them.

Beyond that, improvement from within will determine just how far the Bulls
go, and to that end, Rose wasn’t resting on his accomplishments last season.

He spent the summer honing his inside game after expanding his shooting
range in the past.

“He actually did some of that last year,” Thibodeau said. “It wasn’t real
noticeable because it wasn’t a primary option, but he got to it. … I think he
has an idea now of what he’s trying to get to and how he can get to it.”

But it’s not just on Rose to continue that steady rapid rise from Rookie of
the Year to All-Star to MVP in his third season. Carlos Boozer and Noah staying
healthy will go a long way toward determining the Bulls’ success, too.

Boozer sat out the first month of last season because of a broken right hand
after agreeing to a five-year, $75 million contract. Soon after he returned,
Noah was out for 30 games with a torn ligament in his right thumb.

When they were on the court together, Chicago won in a big way. The Bulls
were 24-5 when they had both their top big men.

Boozer was also limited by a turf toe injury in the postseason, and he went
from averaging 17.5 points while shooting 51 percent in the regular season to
12.6 on 43.3-percent shooting in the playoffs. Fair or not, fans let him hear
it, but he went to work in the offseason.

He showed up to training camp about 20 pounds lighter, and the Bulls are
noticing the results.

“He’s moving very well,” Noah said. “He’s a very hungry player right
now.”

He’s not the only one. Last season only whetted Chicago’s appetite.

“I felt like we had the team—we still do—to win the whole thing,” Luol
Deng said. “But going into this year, we’ve got to focus on us—what we’ve
learned from it and how we can get better. We can’t just focus on one team.
There are a lot of good teams in the East, but we’ve just got to focus on where
we’ve got to get better and what we’ve got to do this year.”