The likely NBA Most Valuable Player meets the player who may be the league's MVP over the past two weeks. Chicago's Derrick Rose, the ever-skilled point guard, has taken the league by storm this season and lifted the Bulls to the best record in the Eastern Conference, and potentially the tops in the league. New York's Carmelo Anthony has been named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for two consecutive weeks now, and is enjoying his best shooting spell of the season as the Knicks have won seven straight games.
The Bulls and the Knicks meet tonight at Madison Square Garden, with both teams' playoff positioning and first round opponents set. The top-seeded Bulls will take on the Indiana Pacers, while the Knicks are set to do battle against the Boston Celtics. Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau, a former Knicks assistant, is the likely Coach of the Year, and he apparently isn't satisfied with just the first seed in the East. With his sights on an NBA championship, Thibodeau is planning on playing his starters down the stretch to try and catch the San Antonio Spurs for the best record in the NBA.
Those starters are actually 0-2 against the Knicks this season. The Bulls have lost just five home games all season, but one of them came to the hands of the Knicks, way back on Nov. 4. The Knicks also took out the Bulls on Christmas Day at Madison Square Garden. But of course, that was before the Carmelo Anthony trade, so the Knicks are better now, right? Well, maybe, but New york might be without Amare Stoudemire, who is expected to rest at least one of the final two games of the season with a sprained ankle. On top of that, the Knicks are in full cruise-control mode at this point, with nothing to play for. If anything, it will be exciting to see Rose playing at his peak, true MVP form.