Bulls scramble, hold off Pacers
The Bulls were cruising along against Indiana on Monday night when one of coach Tom Thibodeau's favorite sayings suddenly sprang to life.
"The minute you exhale in this league," Thibodeau often says, "you get smacked in the mouth."
The Bulls led by 21 points late in the third quarter and seemed to be well on their way to a seventh straight victory. But when the fourth quarter began, the Bulls missed 13 straight shots and watched helplessly as the Pacers took the lead with a 20-0 run.
There was still time on the clock, though, and Jimmy Butler's clutch 3-pointer - one of 2 made field goals by the Bulls in the fourth quarter - salvaged a 92-90 victory at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
"Derrick (Rose) is always on me to shoot and to shoot 3s and be aggressive," Butler told reporters after the game. "I'm confident in my game, so I feel like I have to step up and take and make shots late."
The Bulls were outscored 25-11 in the fourth quarter and shot 2-for-21 from the field but found a way to win in front of a heavy percentage of Bulls fans in the audience.
Butler finished with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals. Pau Gasol added 20 points, while Rose scored 17 but hit just 5 of 20 shots from the field and couldn't get anything to fall in the fourth quarter.
"The lesson we learned is you have to keep playing," Thibodeau said. "No lead is safe in this league."
The Bulls (22-9) went ahead 75-54 after Mike Dunleavy's driving reverse lay-in and 3-point play with 2:32 left in the third quarter. Their lead was 16 points heading into the fourth.
Indiana (11-21) launched its comeback with five reserves on the floor. Forward Chris Copeland scored 14 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter before Lavoy Allen's layup put the Pacers ahead 84-83 with 6:15 left.
A jumper by Luis Scola boosted the lead to 3, and the Bulls' scoring slump continued. Indiana failed to score on five straight possessions with the 3-point lead. Gasol finally ended the Bulls' drought by getting a hook shot to roll in with 3:27 left.
The Bulls went back ahead 89-88 on a pair of Joakim Noah free throws with 1:45 left. Allen hit a jumper to put the Pacers in the lead before Butler drained the go-ahead 3-pointer to make it 92-90 with 1:07 on the clock.
The Bulls couldn't score again and got some breaks in the final seconds. Former Bulls guard C.J. Watson got two open looks at corner 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds and missed both. The final shot came off an inbounds pass with 0.5 seconds on the clock, but came up short.
• Butler was named Eastern Conference player of the week Monday.
• Kirk Hinrich missed his fourth straight game with a hamstring strain. The Bulls host Brooklyn on Tuesday.
• Get the latest Bulls news via Twitter by following @McGrawDHBulls.