Noah comes through in the clutch to lead Bulls past Spurs

By Tim Price, for NBA.com
Posted Tuesday January 26, 2010 12:47AM

SAN ANTONIO (NBA.com exclusive) -- Even before the Spurs took the floor Monday, Gregg Popovich lamented his team's inability to make, as he called it, "stops on demand" with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.

Looking for consistent stops on defense against the Bulls in the fourth quarter, the Spurs again had no one. Chicago had Noah.

Joakim Noah, who thought prior to tipoff he was going to miss his second-straight game because of a sore left foot, was the stopper in the middle for the Bulls. His defensive presence -- a blocked shot of Tim Duncan and two more helps on defense with Manu Ginobili driving the lane -- in the final 90 seconds helped Chicago to a 98-93 victory over the struggling Spurs at AT&T Center.

"You do what you have to do sometimes," Noah said, adding his foot "is painful right now, but it feels good to win, though."

Noah wasn't an offensive juggernaut -- the Bulls' backcourt of Derrick Rose (13-for-23 for 27 points) and Kirk Hinrich (8-15 for 18 points) was that. But Noah scored the final five points of the game, including a rebound follow of Rose's close-in miss when Noah rolled in after setting a pick. It broke a 93-93 tie with 36 seconds to go.

"Derrick took it all the way to the basket, and Duncan went for the block," Noah said. "In that situation I dive hard for the basket because I know I'm going to be naked at the basket. It was a big play."

Big enough that the Spurs are halfway to making their longest homestand of the season a winless one. San Antonio (25-18) has lost three straight at home and five of six overall.

"Things are moving in the right direction," Duncan managed to say afterward. "We just aren't getting the Ws to put a stamp on it. We are playing hard and fighting hard. Things just aren't going our way."

Chicago (21-22) was uncanny at points in the game, no matter who was defending. After falling behind 20-8 to start the game, the Bulls hit nine of their last 10 shots to close out the first quarter and trail 31-29. They hit 10 of 14 to open the second quarter and led by as much as nine. So, during a stretch of 15 minutes the Bulls went 19-for-24 -- 79 percent.

Hinrich hit five straight in that finish to the first quarter. Rose hit four in a row in the second quarter.

None of Rose's shots came from inside 17 feet. Hinrich hit a 3-pointer and a trio of 19-footers before he pulled up from 10 feet.

The hot shooting came in handy for the Bulls, because the Spurs dominated the points in the paint (54 points to 36), second-chance points (17-12) and fastbreak points (23-11). San Antonio also committed seven fewer turnovers.

They took 15 more shots -- yet made three fewer than Chicago. The Bulls shot almost 54 percent to San Antonio's 42 percent. It's the seventh-straight game the Spurs have been outshot from the floor and the free-throw line.

"It's never one thing," Popovich said. "They shot lights out in the first half, but our guys did a good job of hanging in there. Congratulations to the Bulls. They did what they had to do down the stretch to get the win."

The Spurs would have been much better off if Noah had someone else taping him before the game. He said a new taping job that put tape at the bottom of his foot made him go from doubting he could play when he walked into the arena to feeling like he could help the team even though he said he couldn't move much laterally.

"They did something different with the taping, (and) it actually made it feel a lot better," Noah said. "When you get caught up in the game, you start forgetting about it."

On defense, he didn't have to move much laterally. The Spurs came right at him and the middle of the lane.

After Noah blocked Duncan with 1:18 to go (Duncan was 6-for-14 for 15 points in almost 34 minutes), Rose drove the lane and popped back toward the free-throw line to make a fall-away and give Chicago a 93-91 lead.

Chicago was 11-for-19 in the final quarter and scored 12 points in the paint compared to eight for San Antonio.

Ginobili made a pair of free throws to tie it again with 42 seconds left, and Noah scored on his putback after Rose drove the lane again.

Ginobili went straight at the basket and was blocked (the official scorers gave it to Luol Deng, but Noah came over to help and got a hand up with Deng's). On the other end of the floor Noah was fouled and he made a foul shot for a 96-93 lead.

The Spurs called timeout and could not get a 3-pointer off. Instead, Ginobili drove the lane and got off a two with about six seconds to go. Again, it had to go over Noah, who gathered the rebound and was fouled with 5.2 to go. His two free throws finished it off for the Bulls.

• Bulls: James
• Spurs: Finley, Hairston

• Bulls: Gibson
• Spurs: --

• Lead Changes: 9
• Times Tied: 11

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #25 Tony Brothers, #56 Mark Ayotte, #64 Eli Roe
• Attendance: 18581
• Duration: 2:15