Bulls win 4th straight behind Rose's career-high 37 points

By Kent McDill, for NBA.com
Posted Saturday January 16, 2010 12:38AM

CHICAGO (NBA.com exclusive) -- If ever an NBA game was destined for double-overtime, it was Friday's game between the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards.

Derrick Rose's floater in the lane with 5.4 seconds remaining in the second extra period lifted the Bulls to their fourth consecutive win, a 121-119 victory over the visiting Wizards.

The Bulls ran out to a seven-point lead in the first three minutes of the game, and the Wizards had a seven-point lead early in the fourth quarter. Other than that, there were less than six minutes of the game played with either team leading by more than three points.

The game was tied 29 times and there were 22 lead changes. That's close, and competitive.

"That was a difficult one,'' Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. "Both teams were battling out there. We found a way. We made one more play than they did."

"It got scary after a while,'' Rose said. "A team goes up by two and you have to go down and match their shot."

Rose finished with a career-high 37 points, making 16 of 33 shots in over 50 minutes of playing time. He also had nine rebounds and six assists. Kirk Hinrich added 19 points and Luol Deng and Joakim Noah each had 17 points.

Antawn Jamison scored 34 points with 18 rebounds and Caron Butler had 27 points, both of them playing over 55 minutes for the Wizards. Brendan Haywood had 20 rebounds to go with 16 points, and Randy Foye had 22 points.

"Big plays down the stretch from everybody, guys from their side and guys from our side,'' Haywood said of the game.

The Bulls (18-20) have won eight of their last 11 games going into their second long road trip of the season.

The Wizards (12-26), who lost their fourth straight and fifth out of six since Gilbert Arenas left the lineup, actually had the game's only real run, turning a 74-70 deficit late in the third quarter into a 83-76 lead early in the fourth quarter. That 13-2 run was erased by seven consecutive Bulls points, and the rest of the game was played shot for shot, miss for miss.

It became "last shot wins'' basketball.

So, with the game tied at 119 on a pair of free throws by Haywood with 27 seconds left, the Bulls set up a final shot for Rose. He waited for the shot clock to wind down to seven, dribbled into the lane against Foye, did a dribble-spin in the lane and then hit a floater with 5.4 seconds left.

"I've been doing that move since college,'' Rose said. "It felt good to hit a shot like that."

The Wizards had a chance at a last shot, but Foye's 15-footer from the right corner bounced off the rim.

Both teams had a realistic oppoertunity to win the game at the end of regulation.

With the score tied 104-104, Earl Boykins set up with the ball on the left wing, facing the Hinrich with 26 seconds left. He dribbled the ball with Hinrich watching for about 15 seconds, then tried to drive toward the lane only to lose the ball to Hinrich, who called timeout.

Rose missed an 18-footer at the buzzer to send the game into its fated first overtime.

The first overtime was tied at 112 on a driving layup by John Salmons with 14 seconds left. Foye missed a 20-footer from the top of the key to send the game into the second extra period.

Haywood's free throws at the end of the second overtime were his only two successful free throw attempts out of six for the game.

Jamison, playing against Deng for most of the game, only attempted two shots in the two overtime periods and scored just two points in the final 10 minutes.

"They were just denying him,'' Washington coach Flip Saunders said. "They brought help every time we tried to get it to him. Randy then had the open looks."

Jamison had 17 points and 10 rebounds in the first half to help the Wizards take a 48-47 lead at halftime. Butler had 15 first-half points and Haywood had eight points and nine rebounds in the first two quarters.

The Bulls charged out to a 9-2 lead in the first few minutes, and Saunders actually called a timeout after just 60 seconds of the game. But the Wizards scored the next seven points to force a 9-9 tie and the rest of the game was back and forth.

While the Wizards get to go home for five straight games with hopes of gathering themselves, the Bulls head out for the West Coast for seven games over the next two weeks. They are only 4-13 on the road this season, although that includes wins at Cleveland and Boston.

"I think everybody is ready to get out of the cold,'' Noah said. "We've been playing pretty good basketball and we want to keep it up."

• Wizards: Crittenton, James, Miller
• Bulls: James

• Wizards: --
• Bulls: --

• Lead Changes: 22
• Times Tied: 29

• Arena: United Center, Chicago, IL
• Officials: #49 Tom Washington, #42 Eric Lewis, #51 Leroy Richardson
• Attendance: 20304
• Duration: 2:56