Furious Bulls' comeback falls short against Hawks
ATLANTA -- Bulls opponents have made a few surprising comebacks during the past few weeks, but none of those could match the shocker the Bulls nearly pulled off Friday night.
After the Bulls' starting lineup stunk it up at the beginning of both halves, the visitors trailed the Atlanta Hawks by 22 points early in the third quarter and were still down by 13 with 9:47 remaining.
That's when an unlikely lineup led by Chris Duhon and Aaron Gray got the Bulls going. Andres Nocioni helped light a spark by cleanly blocking two Atlanta dunk attempts, one by former dunk contest champ Josh Smith.
Ben Gordon, who didn't score a point until the 1:13 mark of the third quarter, erupted for 16 points in the fourth. His last-gasp 3-pointer rattled around the rim and out just before the final buzzer, though, and the Bulls' best effort arrived too late to prevent a 106-103 loss.
"It's kind of how the season has gone," Gordon said. "You don't know what to expect."
The Bulls (28-44) now trail Atlanta by 4 games for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 10 games remaining. Their tenuous postseason hopes are pretty much over, unless they do something crazy like win out. And since the Bulls haven't even won three in a row all season, a 10-game streak seems far-fetched.
"You've just got to keep battling," coach Jim Boylan said. "Nothing great has ever happened by people who quit."
The late comeback was encouraging, but the Bulls also had to ask why they were so dreadfully awful at the start of both halves.
The Bulls fell behind 31-12 in the first quarter. Then after chipping away at the lead, they watched Atlanta expand a 12-point halftime advantage to 22 in less than five minutes.
"We weren't really ready to play," guard Kirk Hinrich said. "They had more energy than us to start. You don't want to spot anybody in this league a 19-6 lead."
The starters weren't a complete disaster. Luol Deng scored a team-high 19 points, while Hinrich had 8 assists.
But Larry Hughes didn't shoot well and Drew Gooden committed 4 turnovers. The only starter who played in the fourth quarter was Joakim Noah, but only while Gray got a bloody knee repaired.
Down 13 in the fourth quarter, the Bulls finally came alive when Gray scored consecutive baskets and Nocioni snuffed out a Josh Childress dunk attempt.
Trailing 95-94, the Bulls missed a chance to take the lead when a Nocioni runner rolled off the rim with 2:30 left. About a minute later, Nocioni missed a 3-pointer that could have tied the score, and Atlanta went up 103-98 on 2 free throws by Al Horford with 1:02 remaining.
After a Gordon 3-pointer cut the lead to 2, Hawks guard Joe Johnson split 2 free throws, and Gray's dunk with 10.4 seconds on the clock made it 104-103.
That's when the Bulls lost track of Horford, who got loose for a breakaway dunk. But that nearly worked in the Bulls' favor as Gordon came right back and got a decent look at a tying 3-pointer and barely missed.
"I wish we had been playing with that kind of spirit earlier in the season," Boylan said. "We wouldn't be in the situation we're in right now."
Atlanta guard Mike Bibby shot the lights out, hitting 11 of 15 attempts overall and 6 of 8 from 3-point range to finish with 30 points.