NBA scores 2015: Derrick Rose leads Bulls to win in final game before NBA All-Star break

Just one game was played on Thursday prior to the All Star break and it starred someone who won’t be there.

Feb 13, 2015, 1:01 PM UTC

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Thursday night was Derrick Rose's All-Star Game. The former MVP won't be representing the East on Sunday, but he successfully performed on a more important stage when he led the Chicago Bulls to a 113-98 win against Cleveland in the NBA's final regular season game before the All-Star break.

Rose gave scintillating tastes throughout this game of the guy who was an All-Star for three straight seasons starting in 2010, finishing with 30 points. The bursts of speed, the casual behind-the-back dribbles, the gentle layups off the glass even while traveling 100 mph -- it was all there for him on Thursday.

These are the plays that make Rose special, yet we haven’t seen enough of him gliding through the lane and splicing defenses at their seams this year to warrant All-Star consideration. That’s OK, because perhaps that’s still coming. The injury-stricken guard has slowly been rounding into form, and he seems stronger and more confident each time he takes the floor lately.

In the five February games, he’s raised his averages to 21.2 points and 6.2 assists per game on 46.7 percent shooting -- and so far, all three of those are better than any prior month this year.

Rose played nearly 41 minutes to help earn the win, and now Chicago enters the break with a four-game winning streak and a 34-20 record. More importantly, the team finally earned a win over division rival Cleveland. The Cavaliers had already beaten them twice this season, but this Bulls win kept them atop Cleveland in the standings. Chicago now has a one and-a-half game lead and can savor a division lead over the seven-day break.

It’s no secret that the NBA is better when Rose is right. Here’s hoping for an All-Star level of play from him the rest of the season.

3 other things we learned

Tony Snell is finding a role. It wasn't quite what Rose did, but Tony Snell had himself a helluva game, too. He scored 22 points in the starting lineup on 9-11 shooting while hitting four 3-pointers, and did it with some difficult looks, too. The 23-year-old was buried in the rotation early in the year, but has shined of late, scoring double figures in seven of his last 11 outings, including a season-high 24 on Tuesday. Snell will still look young at times, but his presence has been desperately needed by Tom Thibodeau of late, and he has more than paid off.

LeBron James falters trying to carry Kevin Love-less Cavaliers. James, great as he is, can only do so much, and he was asked for a little bit too much on Thursday. He led all scorers with 31 points, but it came on 26 shots and eight turnovers while Love missed with an eye injury and the bench only scored 19 all game. Kyrie Irving was also quiet, scoring 17, but taking 18 shots to get there.

Thursday was the 15th anniversary of Vince Carter winning the 2000 Dunk Contest. Last year, Ricky O'Donnell wrote about how Carter revived the dunk contest with a performance that still, 15 years later, holds up as well as it did then. The past couple years of the dunk contest haven't been extraordinary, but as this year's contest looms on Saturday, it's still worth watching for the hope that someone can match what Carter did all those years ago.