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Quinton Ross dives for the ball against Ben Gordon.
Juan Ocampo (NBAE via Getty Images)
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007 | Chicago, IL Final: CLIPPERS 103, BULLS 89 |
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CHICAGO (AP)
Cuttino Mobley scored 25 points, Corey Maggette added 22, and Elton Brand finished with 21, leading the struggling Los Angeles Clippers to a 103-89 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night.
The Clippers showed some spark after losing seven of their first nine games this month. They began the night ninth in the Western Conference, a game behind Golden State, but they looked like a team that isn't about to go away quietly.
Mobley, Brand and Maggette made sure of that.
Mobley went 8-for-16, while Brand haunted his former team early on, hitting his first five shots and scoring the Clippers' first 10 points. He was 9-of-14 from the floor and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Maggette hit 14 of 17 foul shots.
The Bulls took their second straight loss and once again they fell to a team with a losing record. After falling by one at Memphis on Saturday, the Bulls found little comfort at home, where they are 25-9.
Kirk Hinrich hit six of his first seven shots and finished with 29 points. Ben Wallace matched a season-high with 19 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, but the Bulls couldn't put together a run in the fourth quarter.
Two free throws by Maggette and a banked jumper by Daniel Ewing gave the Clippers an 82-78 lead with 7:13 remaining. And after blocking Hinrich's pull-up jumper from behind, Chris Kaman made it a six-point game with 6:16 left.
With the score 90-85, Ewing hit a 3-pointer that buried the Bulls with 1:16 remaining, and Maggette added two free throws 10 seconds later.
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On their play tonight…. "We have been playing well of late and on this whole trip but it has just not been showing up in victories. Tonight we did a good job moving the ball especially in the 2nd half. I'm really pleased with that and now we just need to finish up this trip on a positive note."
On his bench's play...
On their play tonight... "We moved the ball around tonight. It's hard to guard all of us when we do that. With Elton and Corey and the other guys we always have some scoring out there. I'm happy with the way we're playing now. If we continued everything will work out well for us."
On the 4th quarter and their defense...
On the road trip... "We deserved to win. We played well at Houston and were leading with 2 minutes to go and lost. We were leading New Jersey with 2 minutes to go and lost. It's been a disappointing road trip with how well we've played. It was imperative that we got this win. We've been playing well but it hasn't correlated into wins. We have to turn playing well into wins. If we win tomorrow it will be a good trip. Not a great trip, but a good trip.
On starting the game well...
"They played better than us in a lot of facets of the game. It appeared they wanted it more than we did, and as a result they got a win they deserved."
On setting the tone with defense...
On the Clippers' perimeter play...
On following the game plan...
On Ben Gordon...
On the offense...
"For most of the game, we got out-executed. They played well. We had our chances. We were right there. We just didn't execute very well, and they played pretty well."
On the Clippers' defense...
On Cuttino Mobley...
On getting out of the rut...
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