Game #58, Wed, 02/26 Bulls vs Blazers

Bm335 wrote:Whooohoooo Bulls Win!!

On a normal night, the Bulls' short, chartered flight to Indianapolis late Friday would have been filled with nothing but good vibes after a pulsating 115-111 overtime victory over the Trail Blazers.

Instead, with Joakim Noah left behind in Chicago, the somber reality of his plantar fasciitis has risen again.

Noah helped shut down a red-hot LaMarcus Aldridge and scored eight points with 11 rebounds in 27 minutes, his most action since Feb. 2. But he winced as he landed after drawing a foul with 97 seconds left in the extra session and that painful grimace hadn't subsided in the postgame locker room.

[...]

As a whole, the Bulls did that, beginning a tough stretch on the schedule by moving four games above .500 for the first time since the end of the 2006-07 season.

Derrick Rose scored 33 points and Luol Deng shook off a swollen left knee to add 23 as the Bulls shot 57.5 percent.

The Bulls took a 112-107 lead after a 6-0 run featuring a Kirk Hinrich reverse left-handed layup, a Deng baseline jumper and a Taj Gibson power move off a nifty Noah pass.

But Aldridge, who had 32, dunked with 55.3 seconds left. Then he stripped Gibson and tipped in Brandon Roy's missed free throw with 23.1 seconds left to make it 112-111.

Deng made the second of two free throws with 20.9 seconds left and then hounded Roy into a 3-point miss. Flip Murray rebounded and dished ahead to a streaking Deng, who placed the exclamation point dunk on the triumph with 1.4 seconds left.

"We're playing with confidence," Rose said. "When we play like this, it's hard to beat us."