Chicago Bulls add to the Los Angeles Lakers woes; Script a 95-83 win at the United Center: NBA Recap
Chicago Bulls sent the Los Angeles Lakers crashing to their sixth straight road loss with a 95-83 win here at the United Center, in what was a nationally televised game on Monday night.
Kirk Hinrich led the Bulls with 22 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds. Joakim Noah performed his duties on the defensive end of the court with 13 boards to go along with 6 points while Carlos Boozer added 14 points.
Kobe Bryant had an off night as he scored 16 points, going 7 out of 22 from the floor, ending his 24 game streak of topping the 20 points mark. Dwight Howard had 8 points and 9 rebounds while Pau Gasol posted a double-double with
15 points and 12 rebounds in just 26 minutes.
"We're going to have to look at some things," Bryant said after the loss. "We're going to have to change something. Probably going to have to post the ball a lot more, slow the game down a lot more. That's just my intuition, but
that's my gut right now. I have to take a look at the film again, but we're definitely going to have to change something."
Bulls meant business right from the word go and started pulling ahead early in the first quarter. They had managed to carve out a 7 point by the end of the first period. Pau Gasol opened the scoring in the second period with a
hook shot to cut the gap by two. He was looking good as he made another jumper to make it 24-29 early in the second quarter.
Bulls started to dominate after that though and a Marco Belinelli shot from behind the arc opened up a double digits lead. Los Angeles went for a 6 nil spurt to cut the deficit down to 4, but the Bulls finished the second period
on a high note, and led 47-40 at halftime.
Hinrich made a layup early in the third period to open up a 10 point lead before the Lakers went for a 5 nil run to make it 45-50. Los Angeles looked sharp and kept the pressure on the Bulls later in the third period, and the result
was a tie at 69 at the end of it.
Lakers took the lead for the first time in the final quarter, but it was not their night to be as the Bulls closed out the game well to win 95-83 eventually.
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