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Boozer nets 25 in Bulls' win

Carlos Boozer had by far his best game since returning from a broken right hand, finishing with 25 points and 9 rebounds in Saturday's overtime win against Houston.

“Every day I get a littler bit more comfortable with the system, a little bit more comfortable on the court, getting in better shape as we play,” he said. “It's exciting to win. I'm happy about that.”

Boozer had a couple of putback baskets in the final 25 seconds of the fourth quarter to keep the Bulls alive. At the start of overtime, he was on the bench in favor of Taj Gibson.

“They were running the high pick-and-roll and we were having problems with it,” coach Tom Thibodeau explained. “Taj had been doing pretty well defending it. I was concerned a little bit about (Boozer's) minutes. I wanted to make sure he didn't get too many minutes.”

Miller time for Noah:

On Friday in Boston, Bulls center Joakim Noah was insulted by Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O'Neal. After Saturday's game, former teammate Brad Miller was laughing and joking in front of Noah's locker.

Miller hit four 3-pointers and scored 20 points to help put Houston in position to win the game in the fourth quarter.

“He texted me last night that he was going to bed early,” Noah said. “That right there, I knew we had to be on edge because the ‘Duck' was going to come ready to play.”

Duck is Noah's nickname for Miller, for reasons unclear. Inside the Bulls' locker room, Miller wore a brown Cubs cap with furry hunting flaps.

No changes necessary:

For the second time in three days, coach Tom Thibodeau rejected any notion of changing the lineup. Keith Bogans, who has started every game at shooting guard, canned a 3-pointer in the third quarter that broke a string of going 2-for-20 from long range.

“Right now, collectively we're not playing well,” Thibodeau said. “You can't look at any one particular guy who's not playing well. As a group we're not playing well. I think we have to make some connections with what we're doing, defensively first, then rebounding.”

Bull horns:

After losing to Orlando and Boston this week, the Bulls are 3-8 against teams that had a winning record through Friday. … Derrick Rose and Luol Deng will host a Chicago Housing Authority holiday party at the Museum of Science and Industry on Sunday.