Pacers Rush past Thomas, Bulls
Rookie Brandon Rush scored 9 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, and the Indiana Pacers beat the Bulls 102-95 in a preseason game Friday night in Fort Wayne, Ind.
T.J. Ford scored 18 points for the Pacers (1-1), who bounced back from a 105-71 loss to New Orleans on Wednesday for their first preseason victory.
Tyrus Thomas had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Aaron Gray added 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulls (0-2).
Bulls rookie Derrick Rose had 13 points and 6 assists. He made a 3-pointer with 48 seconds left to cut Indiana's lead to 95-92, but Ford responded with a 3-point play at the other end with 31 seconds left to put the Pacers in control for good.
Indiana played without injured starters Mike Dunleavy (knee) and Troy Murphy (left foot), while the Bulls played without Ben Gordon (toe) and Joakim Noah (eye).
The game was played at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, and the crowd was split between Pacers and Bulls fans, though it was officially a Pacers home game. Fort Wayne is 120 miles from Indianapolis and 160 miles from Chicago.
The Pacers led 49-42 at halftime, with Marquis Daniels scoring all 13 of his points before intermission.
The Bulls tied the game 52-52 midway through the third quarter, then controlled the rest of the period to take a 74-68 lead.
The Pacers tied the game 76-76 on a dunk by Josh McRoberts, and Indiana regained the lead on a reverse layup by rookie Roy Hibbert. He was fouled by Thabo Sefolosha and converted the 3-point play to make it 79-76 with just under eight minutes to play.
Sefolosha hit a 3-pointer to give the Bulls an 84-81 lead, but a driving reverse layup by Rush gave the Pacers an 86-84 lead, and they never trailed again.
Nocioni moves out: There was one surprising change inside the Bulls locker room on Thursday night. After four seasons of adjoining lockers, Andres Nocioni and Luol Deng split up.
Nocioni moved across the room into the stall formerly occupied by Ben Wallace, while rookie Derrick Rose is next to Deng in Nocioni's old spot.
Asked to explain the switch, Deng laughed and said, "Noc said he didn't want to be next to me anymore."
Rose a big draw: With Derrick Rose making his debut Thursday, the Bulls posted their highest television rating for a preseason game since the Michael Jordan era.
The Bulls-Mavericks game averaged a 2.3 rating on Comcast SportsNet, which translates to about 80,000 homes. That was the highest rating since Oct. 25, 1997 when the Bulls hosted Sacramento in an exhibition contest.
Mike McGraw contributed to this report.