Bulls' Boozer nominates Rose for MVP

Fans at the United Center chanted “MVP” at Derrick Rose late in Friday's win over the Lakers, which isn't unusual.

After Rose's latest round of heroics, teammate Carlos Boozer took up the cause in the locker room. He wasn't asked about it, either. This all started with Boozer explaining why his offense was slow to materialize.

“They did a good job of doubling me. They didn't want me to play one-on-one with Lamar (Odom),” Boozer said. “I would have went to work. They knew that. So they brought D-Fish (Derek Fisher) in and I hit the open man. D-Rose happened to be the open man and he's the MVP.”

If we heard correctly, Boozer made himself Rose's campaign manager.

“I don't see why not,” Boozer said. “He's as important to us as anybody else is to their team. Do you agree? I agree. He's won game after game for us. He won the game in Cleveland. He made plays tonight that won the game for us.

“I can't think of a game we won that he didn't make plays to win. Even games he didn't score a lot, he made the right play. He'll continue to prove it. Then I think slowly but surely everybody will start recognizing it.”

Phil misses Stadium.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson has promised to retire after this season, which means this could have been his last trip to Chicago as an NBA coach.

Of course, Jackson coached the Bulls for nine seasons and won six championships. Asked before the game if being back in the United Center brings back happy memories, Jackson mentioned the building that used to stand across the street.

“If they could build the old arena and put that one back up, I'd get a lot of feelings out of that one, because it was a great place to play,” Jackson said. “I always rue the fact that they took it down.

“This is a beautiful place, but it's not quite like (Chicago Stadium). There are still a lot of memories in this place.”

Shooting slump continues:

Keith Bogans went 0-for-3 from the field Friday and is now 4-for-27 from 3-point range since Nov. 19. On some possessions early in the game, the Lakers didn't bother to guard him. So coach Tom Thibodeau got another question after the game about the possibility of changing the lineup.

“To place the blame on Keith for the start of the game is wrong,” Thibodeau answered. “Keith wasn't the guy responsible for calling out our pick-and-roll coverage. Collectively, we've got to do a lot better.”

Bull horns:

Kobe Bryant passed John Havlicek for 11th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. … The Lakers have now lost four straight road games away from their own building. They beat the Clippers on Wednesday in a virtual road game.