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Bulls' Noah rebounds to victory with Paris on his mind

An NBA game is a nice distraction, but there was no avoiding news of the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday.

Two members of the French national team represented their country well at the United Center. Bulls center Joakim Noah grabbed 18 rebounds, while Charlotte's Nicholas Batum scored a game-high 28 points.

The Bulls held off the hot-shooting Hornets 102-97, avenging an ugly 25-point loss in Charlotte on Nov. 3.

Noah was slow to emerge from the training room and didn't have a lot to say about the tragic news from France.

"I'm not sure (what happened)," he said. "I just know it's very, very sad what's going on in Paris. A lot of people died for no reason."

Noah was born in New York City, but lived in Paris with his father, former tennis star Yannick Noah, until roughly eighth grade, when he moved back to New York to focus on basketball. Noah said he was able to contact family members on Friday and everyone was OK.

Pau Gasol, who grew up not far from the French border in Barcelona, Spain, shared his thoughts on the tragic news.

"It's very sad, what's happened in Paris," Gasol said. "Obviously, you try to focus and do what you have to do. But at the same time, your mind is there, your heart is there and you know a lot of people are suffering at this moment and a lot of people died. Just overall devastating news and hopefully at one point, these kind of attacks stop. It's not human, not fair."

Noah sat out the Bulls' previous game, a win at Philadelphia on Monday, with soreness in his left knee. He obviously felt much better on Friday, piling up the 18 rebounds and 6 assists in just 23 minutes of action.

"Jo and Taj (Gibson) were awesome," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "Jo had good pop out there. He was yelling and getting everyone up."

Jimmy Butler led the Bulls with 27 points, while Gasol finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Gibson contributed 12 points off the bench.

The Bulls (6-3) led most of the way, but let the Hornets get hot from 3-point range. Charlotte went 10-for-20 from behind the arc in the second half, but the visitors missed their last 4 attempts.

A pair of Gasol free throws gave the Bulls a 100-95 lead with 2:17 remaining. After Marvin Williams dropped in a hook shot, Williams, Batum and Jeremy Lamb missed 3-point shots that could have tied the score. Finally, Butler had a 19-foot fallaway bounce on the rim and fall through with 5.4 seconds left to clinch the win.

"I don't want to say it's revenge. We just came out and played," Derrick Rose said. "I loved the way the ball moved. Everybody was aggressive and we got ourselves a win.

"We didn't have no effort when we played them in Charlotte and they smacked us. They did what they were supposed to do. Coming out tonight, we just made sure we always had bodies in front of them. We did a great job of keeping them out of the paint. Last game they had 50 points in the paint."

Get the latest Bulls news via Twitter by following @McGrawDHBulls.

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