Blundering Bulls can't keep up with Dallas
The Bulls had a great opportunity to sweep their two-game holiday road trip, but they made too many blunders down the stretch and lost to Dallas 118-111 on Saturday.
All five Bulls starters scored in double figures, led by Derrick Rose with 25 points and Nikola Mirotic with 23. Rose had one of his best offensive nights of the season, hitting 12 of 20 shots.
Yet, coming off an impressive Christmas win at Oklahoma City, the Bulls couldn't finish off a strong effort. The most costly turnover was a five-second violation with 11.2 seconds left while trailing by 3. The Bulls ran a slow-developing play and Rose got the ball to Jimmy Butler just as the whistle blew.
This was a collective failure down the stretch, though. The Bulls had their chances, but couldn't get good looks at the basket, made some careless passes and gave up too many offensive rebounds (16). The Mavericks went 16-for-33 from 3-point range.
The Bulls (16-12) tied the score at 106 on a Rose drive and 3-point play with 3:51 left. They had a chance to take the lead after a Butler steal, but he missed a jumper.
Dallas (17-13) took the lead when center Zaza Pachulia followed his own miss. Rose tied it with a jumper, then the Bulls had two more possessions with the score tied, but Rose missed shots both times.
Two free throws by Raymond Felton broke the tie with 1:07 left. On the Bulls' next trip, Rose drove and had his pass deflected by Felton. The resulting fast break produced a lay in by Wesley Matthews to put the Mavericks ahead by 4 with 38.9 seconds left. A 3-pointer from Butler and defensive stop gave the Bulls one more chance to tie, which they squandered by not getting the ball in bounds.
Pau Gasol added 18 points and 9 rebounds for the Bulls. Butler had 17 points and 8 assists. Guard J.J. Barea led the Mavs with 26 points, going 7-for-8 from 3-point range.
After Friday's win at Oklahoma City, several players credited a speech by vice president of basketball operations John Paxson for getting the team in a better frame of mind. The Bulls snapped a three-game skid by beating the Thunder.
"He was just talking to us about how we got to play with a lot more aggressiveness, play like we want it more," Taj Gibson said, according to espn.com. "Play like how we used to play. Play with a lot more toughness and heart. Too much buddy-buddy. Just got to go out there and just attack. There's no time to be friends with anybody right now. We've got enough friends in here."
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg talked about Paxson's contribution before the Dallas game.
"He was great. Look, John was a tough, tough guy. He played a lot of years, he won championships," Hoiberg said. "He's been in every position you can possibly be in from front office to a guy calling the shots, to a guy on the bench, he did radio for a while. He did everything in this league and he's very well respected.
"Our guys really respect John and it was good that he sat in there and again that's what we did a lot in those three days we had off. It wasn't just time on the practice floor, but we spent time in the film room just talking things out and John was a big part of that."
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