Mirotic leads Bulls to another win
As the days pass, we're getting a better idea of what happened in the Chicago Bulls' air-clearing team meeting Sunday.
First of all, the players must have decided they want to make the NBA playoffs after all. The rest of the time was spent telling Nikola Mirotic to play better.
Actually, the whole set of Bulls reserves played well Thursday night. Mirotic stayed hot, scoring 28 points to lead the Bulls to a much-needed 103-100 victory over the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center.
Pau Gasol, with 12 points and 10 rebounds, collected his 500th career double-double, 11th best in NBA history.
Indiana lost at home to Orlando on Thursday, so the Bulls (38-37) pulled within 1 game of the eighth-place Pacers. The Bulls clinched the tiebreaker by winning Tuesday at Indiana. They're 2 games behind seventh-place Detroit and host the Pistons on Saturday at the United Center.
The Bulls may have to continue their playoff push without a couple of starters. Derrick Rose was ineffective in the first half because of a sore left elbow and didn't play in the second half. Rose was practically playing one-handed and didn't attempt a shot in 12 minutes of action.
Taj Gibson skipped Thursday's game because of a rib injury. Before the game, Hoiberg acknowledged Gibson has a small fracture in his rib. Gibson was able to play through the injury for a few games but sat out the second half in Indiana.
"He's been wearing a pad over the area. He's been trying to fight through it, obviously," Hoiberg said before Thursday's game, according to espn.com. "Pain will dictate how much he can go the rest of the year. But everything's spasmed right now. He's having trouble reaching over his head, and it's just smart not to play him tonight."
The victory in Houston clearly belonged to the subs, who had been a liability for the Bulls during most of the team's two-month slump.
It started with Mirotic, who turned in a "Throw Back Thursday" performance. A throw back to March 2015 when the 6-foot-10 forward caught fire on offense. Mirotic also scored 28 points against Indiana, giving him back-to-back 20-point games for the first time since March 18-20, 2015.
Doug McDermott added 15 points, 9 rebounds and finished a game-high plus-26 in the plus-minus. The Bulls got a nice defensive boost from backup center Cristiano Felicio, while Justin Holiday and E'Twaun Moore scored 8 points each.
The Bulls finished the game with Mirotic, McDermott, Holiday, Moore and Jimmy Butler on the floor, with Gasol going in and out a few times.
Butler was the one starter who was sharp, hitting 8 of 13 shots for 21 points, to go with 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Butler's give-and-go dunk from Gasol gave the Bulls a 94-91 lead with 2:08 left.
Butler celebrated by doing a pullup on the rim and came away with something rarely seen in the NBA - a hanging-on-the-rim technical foul. It turned out to cause no harm because James Harden missed the technical free throw.
After the Rockets missed, Moore delivered the biggest shot of the game, a 3-pointer that put the Bulls ahead 97-91 with 1:30 remaining. McDermott free throws boosted the lead to 8 points, then the Bulls almost gave it away.
Mirotic fouled Trevor Ariza on a 3-point shot, McDermott got an offensive foul for clearing out a defender with his rear end, and a Harden 3-pointer brought Houston within 102-100 with 10.5 seconds on the clock.
Holiday hit 1 of 2 free throws, and on the other end Ariza got a wide-open look at a potential tying 3, but it missed as time expired.
The Bulls trailed by as many as 14 points and were down 80-67 with 1:21 left in the third quarter. With all subs on the floor, the Bulls went on a 9-0 run and took an 87-86 lead on McDermott's tip-in with 6:40 remaining.
Rookie Bobby Portis started at power forward for Gibson but played just 10 minutes. Harden led Houston (37-38) with 24 points, while Chicago native Patrick Beverley scored a career-high 22. The loss dropped the Rockets out of playoff position into ninth place in the West.
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