Boozer steps up, scores 18 in Bulls loss

ATLANTA — Before the Bulls’ Sunday morning shootaround, forward Carlos Boozer told reporters he wasn’t going to say anything more about his injured toe.

“I’m OK. I’m fine,” Boozer said. “I’m not thinking about that.”

A good way to solve that issue would be to provide actual proof that his turf toe injury is getting better, and Boozer may have done that in Game 4.

He scored 18 points, his highest total of the playoffs, and hit 7 of 10 shots in the loss to the Hawks.

“I thought his post moves in Game 3 were really good,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I think he picked up on that in this game. We’ve got to search him out. I thought he was real aggressive. I think he’s starting to feel better. So that’s an encouraging sign.”

Late in the third quarter, Boozer helped the Bulls rally from an 8-point deficit. He slammed home a missed 3-pointer by Derrick Rose, knocked down a jumper and finished a lay-in to give the Bulls a 69-67 lead at the end of three quarters.

Boozer attempted just 1 shot in the fourth quarter, though, a missed banker that came on the first possession. So he had no shots over the final 11½ minutes.

“You give them credit, they played well,” Boozer said. “Obviously, we wanted to come in and win tonight. But now it’s tied at 2-2. We go back home and we make the corrections we’ve got to make and we win Game 5 and move on.”

Atlanta dominated the points in the paint 56-40 and after being badly outrebounded in Game 2 and 3, the Hawks were much closer on the boards, with the Bulls holding a 37-36 edge.

“Their bigs played very well. They were very physical tonight,” said Joakim Noah, who led the Bulls with 11 rebounds. “It’s on us. We have to play better. We didn’t play with a great edge altogether as a team. I think we started feeling good about ourselves.”

Boozer’s previous playoff high this season was 17 points in Game 2 against Indiana. He’s been struggling with the turf toe injury on his right foot, but has been off his game ever since spraining his left ankle on that flagrant foul by Charlotte’s Kwame Brown.

In 23 games since returning from the ankle injury, Boozer scored 20 points just three times. He gave a forecast of what the Bulls will face in Tuesday’s Game 5 at the United Center with control of the series at stake.

“I think it will be a game of will,” Boozer said. “For us, we go home, watch some tape of the mistakes we made and try to improve on that for the next game. The team that has the most will and wants it the most, usually wins Game 5 when it’s tied up at 2.”