Chicago Bulls Joakim Noah And Coach Under Fire For Triple-Double Stat Chase; French Player Said He Tried To Get It

Chicago Bulls players have massive shoes to fill with their star player Derrick Rose still out due to injury. French center and one-time All-Star Joakim Noah heeded the call. As always, he gives his best night in and night out. On Thursday match against the Boston Celtics, Noah exemplified the term 'step up' as he helped his team win, 94-82, almost recording a triple double. He had 17 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks, and nine assists in 34 minutes. Bulls fans applauded his effort but some Celtics supporters and non-Bulls supporters didn't like it.

Critics said that Noah was gunning deliberately for the rare achievement even if he has no more reason to stay on the floor. The six-year veteran didn't deny that he was indeed looking to complete the record.

"I think probably, I don't know, three minutes to go," Noah told CSN Chicago when asked about the matter.

"It's not really good to play basketball that way, where you're focusing on your stats. It's not that cool. But I tried to get it. Jimmy tried to force the shot at the end. It's not a good look."

As for his coach Tom Thibodeau, he believes that Noah's teammate were not aware of the situation.

"The end of the game, obviously we've got to do better and we were trying to run through him, too, because of the ball pressure," the coach said, deflecting the question.

"I was calling for what we were running. Now, we didn't execute it. When they're putting two on the ball in the backcourt, he's very good at pushing the ball up and I don't want to play slow there. I don't want him to hold the ball where they can come and re-trap. He's shown throughout his career that he can go and make a great play and get you the easy basket."

Thibodeau himself didn't escape the backlash. He was scrutinized by the media for letting his key players play a lot of minutes despite knowing that they are not 100%.