Bulls rally to win in double overtime

The Bulls have a Thanksgiving team dinner scheduled at a Denver restaurant on Thursday. But the players might be too tired to do anything but order room service.

Playing the second of back-to-back games against a rested Phoenix team, the Bulls rallied from an early 23-point deficit to pull out a grueling 123-115 double-overtime victory over the Suns late Wednesday night.

Forward Taj Gibson skipped the game with a right ankle injury.

Derrick Rose tied the score at the end of regulation and first overtime. He finished with 35 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists in 50 minutes. He played down the stretch with 5 fouls before finally collecting No. 6 in the second overtime.

“You can’t say enough about Derrick, the way he competed tonight,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Not only the points, the assists, the way he ran the team, but I thought his rebounding was fantastic tonight.”

Rose opened the second overtime with a 3-point play. After a driving basket by Phoenix forward Hedo Turkoglu, Rose and Luol Deng knocked down jumpers to put the Bulls ahead by 5.

The Suns missed 10 of their first 11 shots in the second overtime, and the Bulls were never threatened after Kyle Korver’s free throws put them ahead 120-113 with 15 seconds left.

Deng actually topped Rose’s playing time, collecting 26 points and 10 rebounds in 53 minutes. Joakim Noah produced 17 points and 15 rebounds, one night after the Bulls experienced a tough 9-point loss against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“We’re young. I think we have guys who are in great shape,” Thibodeau said. “So I think they can play the minutes.”

The way the Suns (7-8) jumped on the Bulls in the first quarter, it looked as though the visitors were given the wrong start time. Phoenix shot 64 percent on the way to a 36-17 advantage after one quarter.

The lead peaked at 50-27 with 6:35 left in the second quarter on a 3-point play by Hakim Warrick, who finished last season with the Bulls, then signed with Phoenix as a free agent.

Warrick scored 23 points in 14 minutes during the first half, but the Bulls chipped away at the lead while he was in the game. Warrick never scored after halftime.

Still trailing by 18 point with 5:23 left in the third quarter, the Bulls clawed back, thanks to a stronger defensive effort. James Johnson’s 3-pointer pulled the Bulls within 99-97 with 2:20 left.

After both teams exchanged misses, Johnson’s fastbreak dunk evened the score with 45.6 seconds remaining.

Phoenix went ahead with 2 free throws by Steve Nash, then Rose knocked down a couple of clutch foul shots with 14.7 seconds on the clock to tie the score. Ronnie Brewer, who started in place of Gibson, contested Grant Hill’s last-second jumper, which was well off the mark.

The Bulls (8-5) had chances to take control in the first overtime after Korver finished a fastbreak lay-in off a pass from Noah to put the visitors up 107-105 with 2:26 left.

The Bulls had two chances to pad the lead but missed jumpers and Jason Richardson’s 3-pointer on the other end gave the Suns a 1-point lead with 1:04 remaining.

After failing to score on two possessions, the Bulls got some life when Richardson missed a free throw with 5.5 seconds on the clock. That set up Rose’s backdoor cut and reverse lay-in with 0.1 seconds left, sending the teams to double overtime.