With Watson's return, plenty
of options at point guard

Conrad Brunner | Feb. 8, 2010

Watson missed the previous two games to attend his grandmother's funeral but in his last appearance had his first double-double of the season, 15 points and 11 assists, in a 130-115 victory over Toronto. Ford, who hadn't played since Dec. 30, racked up 31 points and shot 13-of-18 in two games off the bench. And Price started in Watson's absence, totaling 17 points and eight assists before leaving Saturday's game with Milwaukee with a mild concussion when he was hit in the face on a drive by Andrew Bogut.

"Three really solid options from the standpoint of Earl, before he went back to his grandmother's funeral, played arguably the best game he's played. He attacked the basketball well, he shot well, distributed well," said Coach Jim O'Brien. "In his absence, T.J. showed his professionalism by being ready and playing a really, really good game against Detroit and then an OK game, a solid game, against Milwaukee.

"And A.J., the whole purpose of making this change was to be able to see what we have in A.J. and I think over the last month, we have found out. We feel really good about who he is as a young player and how he can grow. So we have three solid options there – always have had three solid options."

The Pacers (18-32) trail the eighth-place Heat by six games but are gaining ground as Miami has lost five in a row. Chicago (24-25) is tied with Charlotte for sixth in the East. The Bulls have dropped three of four but are 14-8 since Dec. 26.

"It's a big game for us, big game for them," said Watson. "They want to finish strong going into the break, they're trying to secure one of the last couple of spots for the playoffs and we're trying to get into that competition seriously. We're at home, we've got to take advantage of being home and play hard."

The Bulls beat the Pacers 104-95 in Chicago on Dec. 29 as Rose scored 28. The Bulls also outrebounded the Pacers 47-31 and outscored them 22-12 from the free-throw line.

"It's a team that's definitely gotten better from the last time we played them," said Watson. "They struggled early in the season and now they're coming together, they're playing really well with Derrick Rose. They're a team that's going to play very physical, very fast and tries to get a lot of points in the paint. They're young like us so it'll be a good game."

Price is listed as day-to-day with the first concussion of his career.

"This is my first and hopefully my last," he said. "I don't want to deal with it again."

In their last three games, the Pacers won twice, averaging 123.5 points and shooting better than 50 percent in both. In their one loss, they managed 81 points and committed 20 turnovers.

"In the two wins we really attacked the basket well," said O'Brien. "We're going to have to do the same thing against Chicago, who's one of the top defensive teams in field goal defense in the league. So not only attack but we've got to force ourselves to move, something we did not do up in Milwaukee. We want to go into this little down time on a positive note.

"(The Milwaukee loss) was a combination of their pressure, them getting under our chin, and us not responding to it. We did not move well and we're at our best against anybody when we move well, when we run and attack and get a nice balance of inside-outside post-ups for Roy (Hibbert), moving and getting open shots. When we don't do that, we're not at our best against anybody. When we refuse to move against a team that's pressuring us it makes us look like a very bad offensive team."

The Bulls regain the services of reserve forward Tyrus Thomas, who was suspended for one game. Starting forward Luol Deng missed Monday's practice with tendinitis in his right shoulder but is expected to play.