Off target early, Bulls eye victory
PHILADELPHIA -- Maybe a team needs to hit rock bottom before it can start climbing back to respectability.
If that's the case, the Bulls are in good shape, because they were beyond awful in the first quarter of Friday's 100-97 victory at Philadelphia.
The Bulls fell behind 25-7 after missing 10 consecutive shots and watching the 76ers create a 16-0 run while barely breaking a sweat.
Coming off Tuesday's fourth-quarter meltdown against the lowly New York Knicks, it appeared the Bulls' documents officially conceding the 2007-08 season as a complete failure were halfway to the mailbox.
"What we were trying to say in the timeouts is, 'Let's not panic about this. Let's just try to chip away at it,' and we did," coach Jim Boylan said. "It was great to see our guys respond and shoot the ball better."
Andres Nocioni bounced back from three bad days with the flu by scoring a game-high 27 points and hitting 11 of 18 shots from the field. Early on, though, it looked like he'd be better off retreating to the locker room and lying down.
On the Bulls' first possession of the game, Nocioni launched a wide-open 18-foot baseline jumper that struck the side of the backboard. The ball didn't just graze the backboard. It hit it square and bounced directly backward.
"I started really, really bad," Nocioni said with a smile. "Wow. I don't know. That was one of the worst shots of my life."
During the Bulls' second possession, Kirk Hinrich ignored an open Nocioni, drove into traffic and had a scoop shot blocked by Philadelphia's Willie Green.
Things went downhill from there. At one point late in the first quarter, the Bulls were 3-for-19 from the field.
But the turnaround came quickly. The Bulls used a 15-2 to close within 5 points early in the second quarter, tied the score at 38-38, then took a 45-40 advantage by halftime.
The Bulls (14-20) even tacked on the first 7 points of the second half and led by at least 8 until the Sixers mounted a frantic comeback in the final two minutes.
The game seemed to be over when a Joe Smith free throw put the Bulls ahead 94-82 with 2:22 remaining. But then the Sixers (14-23) turned up the pressure and scored 8 points in a hurry. Sam Dalembert's dunk off an offensive rebound brought the home team within 94-90 with 1:04 left.
The Sixers nearly got another steal, but Hinrich managed to track down a deflected pass. Then Nocioni put an end to the run by driving past Dalembert for a clutch lay-in as the shot clock expired, putting the Bulls up by 6 with 39.2 seconds on the clock.
The game ended with Philadelphia's Louis Williams draining a 3-pointer.
Nocioni stayed home from Wednesday's practice suffering from the flu. A day later, he stayed late at the Berto Center to practice 3-point shots.
"I'm not shooting really well," Nocioni said. "I don't feel comfortable with the way I'm playing. I hope this is a new start for me and our team and I hope we start to pick it up."
The Bulls played without Luol Deng (left Achilles' tendinitis) and Joakim Noah (disciplinary suspension).
Smith added 19 points and Ben Gordon had 15. Philadelphia, which lost its sixth straight, got 21 points and 20 rebounds from Dalembert.