Philadelphia Sixers stump Chicago Bulls 89-82 in Game 4; Put the Bulls on the brink of elimination – NBA Playoffs 2012 Recap
On Sunday afternoon, the capacity crowd of 20412 at the Wells Fargo Center saw their home side, Philadelphia 76ers put a leash on Derrick Rose - less Chicago Bulls in a third game running by carving out an 89-82 win in Game 4.
With the victory, the Phillies have now taken an imposing 3-1 lead in this Eastern Conference first round playoff series and have put Tom Thibodeau’s team on the ropes .
Spencer Hawes led the way for the Sixers with 22 points on a 9-of-11 shooting night and 8 rebounds. Jrue Holiday followed him up with 20 points, 8 boards and 6 assists while Andre Iguodala managed 14 points and 12 rebounds to notch up a double-double in the game.
The injury woes continue for the Bulls in game-4. After losing Rose in Game 1, Chicago were without their starting centre Joakim Noah in the game. With him in the paint, it was always going to be tough for them.
Carlos Boozer led the way with 23 points and 11 rebounds. C. J. Watson followed him up with 17 points to his name while Taj Gibson came off the bench to score 14 points and 12 rebounds. Luol Deng, who was expected to take over the Bulls offense after Rose’s departure continued his miserable run of form with only 11 points in the contest.
There was not much to separate the two in the early stages when the scores were tied at 8. From that point on, Sixers went on a 10-0 burst to take a significant lead in the ball game. Even though the Bulls were able to cut the advantage down to 4 at one point, however the Sixers held their nerve, closing the quarter out with a score line of 24-15.
The Sixers lead quickly got into double figures, courtesy of a Lou Williams triple at the 10:41 mark in the second quarter. However for the Bulls, Gibson carried the charge helping his team put together an 11-2 response to make it a one point game, 28-29.
The action remained end to end from that point on and at the half way stage there was not much to distance the two with the score being 44-42 in Philadelphia`s favour.
In the third quarter, even though there was no burst of scoring, however the Bulls slowly built their way to hold a 6 point lead at the 6:27 mark. Sixers quickly responded with 7 points and held that 1 point advantage before going into the fourth quarter. The Sixers were able extend their lead to as much as 5 at the 6:10 mark. However, for the Bulls, Watson and Gibson responded with 4 points to cut the lead down to 1.
Holiday knocked down two back to back triples but the Bulls were just not going out that easy and responded back to again cut the lead down to 2 points at the 1:47 mark.
In the final minute of the ball game, Sixers were able to hold their nerve on 4 trips to the charity stripe and were able to knock down 7 of 8 free throws in that span while the Bulls could only manage 2 points. This enabled Philadelphia to snatch away a win at home; they now look at the possibility of advancing past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
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