Hot Bulls snap Warriors' home streak at 19
The Bulls and the Golden State Warriors played an overtime instant classic late Tuesday night in Oakland, California.
Derrick Rose drained a 20-foot jumper with seven seconds left in OT, then record-setting scorer Klay Thompson missed a runner at the buzzer, giving the Bulls a memorable 113-111 victory at Oracle Arena.
The Bulls' victory snapped a 19-game home winning streak by Golden State, which hadn't lost in its own arena since Nov. 11 against San Antonio. The Warriors dropped to 36-7 but still own the best record in the NBA.
Rose had a crazy stat line, finishing with 30 points, 11 turnovers, 6 rebounds and just 1 assist. He hit 13 of 33 shots from the field, played 43 minutes and played a large part in limiting Stephen Curry to 9 of 23 shooting.
The Bulls (30-17) won some battles on the inside. Pau Gasol finished with 18 point and 16 rebounds, while Joakim Noah had 18 and 15.
Thompson led Golden State with 30 points. He started off red-hot, draining 3-pointers on the game's first two possessions and scoring 15 points in the opening seven minutes. Last Friday, Thompson set an NBA record by scoring 37 points in the third quarter.
Eventually, the Bulls managed to slow Tuesday's game to a reasonable pace.
After fighting an uphill battle most of the night, the Bulls finally got their chance to take the lead by forcing a Curry miss with 49 seconds left.
Rose missed a baseline runner, Noah couldn't bank in the follow attempt, and the Bulls were in a position where they needed to foul to get the ball back.
Until, that is, Kirk Hinrich managed to deflect Curry's outlet pass. Rose grabbed the errant pass and dished it back to Hinrich, who buried a go-ahead 3-pointer with 15.8 seconds left.
On the other end, Golden State's Andre Iguodala missed a 3-pointer and teammate Draymond Green jumped over the back of Noah to get the tying tip in with 1.4 seconds on the clock.
The Bulls never trailed in overtime. They went ahead 111-109 on a Noah tip-in. The Warriors tied it with a Curry fastbreak with 1:08 left. Both teams missed chances before Rose drained the go-ahead jumper over Thompson.
The Bulls trailed 91-80 with 8:56 left in the fourth quarter. Nikola Mirotic helped get the Bulls back in it by hitting a 3-pointer, then getting fouled and making 3 free throws. After a couple of Rose runners, Gasol's fadeaway pulled with Bulls within 99-98 with 4:07 left. Mirotic played essentially the entire fourth quarter and overtime.
Before the game, the Bulls got exactly the news they didn't need with Thompson on an extended scoring spree: Defensive stopper Jimmy Butler would be out with flu-like symptoms. Mike Dunleavy, meanwhile, missed his 14th straight game with a right-ankle injury.
Center Andrew Bogut was a late scratch for Golden State.
The Warriors got off to a great start, scoring 11 points on their first four possessions. But even though Golden State shot 61 percent from the field and the Bulls shot 39 percent, the Bulls trailed just 35-29 at the end of one quarter.
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