Bulls' confidence remains high despite frustrating loss
As far as the Bulls are concerned, the New Year began on Friday.
They have been a completely different team in the past three games since Jim Boylan stepped in as interim head coach.
Even though the Bulls suffered a disappointing 112-110 overtime loss to the Orlando Magic on Monday afternoon when Hedo Turkoglu drilled a 15-foot fadeaway with 0.7 seconds on the clock, optimistic words were spoken inside the United Center.
"This is the way I would like to lose, with a last shot in overtime," said Andres Nocioni, thinking back to a dismal 18-point loss to Houston on Dec. 22 in Scott Skiles' last game as head coach.
"We definitely feel a lot better," added forward Luol Deng. "You can see everybody's confident. You can see on the court the intensity's coming back. We're playing with a lot of passion."
Guard Ben Gordon capped a 39-point afternoon by nailing a 3-pointer to tie the score with 8.4 seconds left in overtime.
On Orlando's next possession, Turkoglu ran a high screen-and-roll with Dwight Howard, drove against Bulls center Ben Wallace, then pulled back and hit the game-winner.
About a minute after the decisive basket was scored, the Bulls decided to stick to their original postgame promotional plan and had public-address announcer Tommy Edwards count down the final seconds of 2007 while the court was showered with confetti, even though it was 4 p.m.
The Magic owns one of the NBA's best records at 22-11, is an impressive 15-5 on the road and had a day off Sunday while the Bulls were beating New York on the road. So this fits the criteria of a quality loss, and the disappointing Bulls (11-18) haven't had many of those this season.
"What I've tried to do since I've taken over is give them some confidence," Boylan said. "Let them know that I believe in them. I believe that they're good players and we can be successful. So sometimes there are mistakes that are made, I tell our guys live in the moment, win the next play."
The Bulls trailed by 5 points early in overtime, then rallied to take a 107-106 lead on a bank shot by Gordon with 43.2 seconds remaining. On Orlando's next trip, guard Jameer Nelson (22 points) blew past Chris Duhon for a layup that put the visitors ahead by 1.
After a Gordon miss, Orlando's Keith Bogans hit 2 free throws with 14.1 seconds on the clock to set up Gordon's tying 3-pointer.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulls trailed by as many as 6 points, then watched the lead change hands five times before Wallace's tip-in appeared to put the Bulls in control at 96-93 with 1:08 remaining. But Nelson sandwiched 3 free throws around a Gordon turnover to tie the score. Kirk Hinrich also fouled out during that sequence.
Gordon tallied 21 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. In three games since returning to a sixth-man role, Gordon has averaged 31.7 points, shot an impressive 56.5 percent from the field and hit 8 of 15 attempts from 3-point range.
"I've just been going out there and trying to have fun," he said. "Regardless of what's going on, just going out there and playing carefree and trying to have fun."