Bobcats Suffer Second Loss Of Summer

SALT LAKE CITY, July 22 -- The Chicago Bulls won a nip-and-tuck battle between two of the top teams in the Rocky Mountain Revue with an 89-86 win over the Charlotte Bobcats on Thursday night. The Bobcats built a 15-point lead midway through the third quarter before the Bulls came charging back to tie the game in the fourth quarter and then take the lead in the final minutes. Charlotte dropped to 4-2 with the loss while the Bulls improved to 4-1.

“We played hard but we didn’t do some of the little things throughout the game. They got some key offensive rebounds at the end of the game. We didn’t play defense the way we normally do in the first half but we fought back to take a 15-point lead,” said John-Blair Bickerstaff, the team’s coach for the game. “Jason Kapono had a great game and when he gets going there is not a lot you can do to stop him. Tonight we got him the ball and he was on a roll.”

Kapono scored Charlotte’s first eight points of the game and 16 of the team’s first 20 en route to a game-best 32 points. He also added five rebounds, four assists and a steal in the losing effort.

“It was one of those games where I caught fire early," said Kapono. "My teammates did a great job of getting me the ball in the right places. A couple of my shots just missed at the end that could’ve made a difference.”

Kapono’s early outburst outscored the Bulls as the Bobcats took a 20-14 lead over the first six minutes. Kapono was 6-8 from the field and 4-5 behind the arc in that time. The Bobcats increased their lead to as many as seven points at 25-18 late in the quarter and owned a 27-22 advantage after the first period. Kapono finished with 21 points in the opening quarter on 8-11 from the field and 5-6 from three-point range. The Bobcats shot .500 from the field in the quarter and had seven assists on 10 made field goals.

Charlotte moved ahead by 10 points at 36-26 in the second period but Chicago rallied to close within 49-44 at halftime. Primoz Brezec scored seven points in the second quarter.

Chicago scored the first six points of the third quarter to take a 50-49 lead as the Bobcats missed their first seven shot attempts. But Charlotte responded with eight-straight points to start a 17-2 run over a six-minute stretch that gave the Bobcats a 66-51 advantage. Chicago missed seven-straight field goal attempts in that time. The Bulls used a 13-4 spurt to finish the period to move within 70-64 at the end of the quarter.

The run continued in the fourth quarter as the Bulls scored the first five points to cut the lead to 70-69 and then knotted the score at 76-76 midway through the quarter. The game remained close the remainder of the way before Jannero Pargo scored on four-straight possessions to give the Bulls an 87-84 lead. Loren Woods scored on a reverse dunk on Charlotte’s trip down the floor to move within 87-86 but the Bobcats turned the ball over on their final possession.

Brezec finished with 17 points and Woods posted a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Charlotte played without Melvin Ely (back spasms), Bernard Robinson (hip pointer) and Maurice Carter (mild concussion).