Bulls can't hold on, fall in OT
DALLAS - Jason Kidd didn't score a point for 47 minutes and 47 seconds. He was benched in the first half due to an inability to keep up with Derrick Rose on defense.
But Kidd's first basket of the night, a 3-pointer with 13.1 seconds left in regulation, tied the score, and Dirk Nowitzki's 44 points carried the Dallas Mavericks to a 115-114 overtime victory over the Bulls.
The Bulls' long ice-show road trip finally ended with a 4-3 record. They beat expectations but suffered a pair of excruciating overtime losses at Dallas and Minnesota where they couldn't hold leads late in the fourth quarter.
With the last shot of regulation, Rose blew past Kidd and tossed an 8-foot runner over Nowitzki that was off the mark. The Bulls screamed for a foul, and Kidd did appear to undercut Rose from behind as the shot was released, but no whistle was heard.
"We're disappointed. We should have won this game," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "We had our opportunities. We can't give up a 3 at the end, and we have to convert on the offensive end when we have those opportunities, and we weren't able to do any of that.
"So it's a tough one to swallow."
Nowitzki scored 14 of Dallas' 18 points in overtime. After finally forcing a Nowitzki miss, Joakim Noah was called for a loose-ball foul as the Bulls grabbed the defensive rebound. With the Dallas possession restored, Josh Howard buried a jumper to send the Mavericks up 107-101 with 1:20 left.
Andres Nocioni, Thomas and Ben Gordon all hit 3-pointers in the final 16.2 seconds, but the Bulls never had the ball with a chance to tie at the end of OT.
Gordon led the Bulls with 28 points, Thomas finished with 23 points and 12 rebounds, and Rose had 22 points and 9 assists. Nowitzki missed 10 of his first 12 shots, then went 14-for-22 the rest of the night.
"That's why he's a superstar," Del Negro said. "He's 7 feet; he's fading away. We trapped him, we doubled him, we switched it. He still was fading away on us and we couldn't get to (the shots)."
The Bulls (22-29) had plenty of chances to put the game away in regulation. Tyrus Thomas' drive and dunk past Nowitzki put the visitors ahead 95-90 with 2:51 remaining, capping an 8-0 run.
On the Bulls' next three possessions, Rose missed a driving bank, Deng drove to the rim and couldn't finish, then Rose missed a jumper.
Dallas (30-20) was held scoreless for nearly five minutes until Jose Barea's lane drive cut the Bulls' lead to 95-92 with 1:22 left. Nowitzki hit 2 free throws to slice the advantage to 1 before Rose got a 12-foot pull-up jumper to fall with 24.8 seconds on the clock to make it 97-94 and set the stage for Kidd's heroics.
Drew Gooden missed his ninth straight game with groin and abdominal strains and said he planned to get the injury re-examined when the Bulls return home.