Chicago 113, Indiana 107
Bulls bench overwhelms Pacers
By Conrad Brunner | Feb. 27, 2008
Larry Hughes and Ben Gordon took care of the second quarter. Hughes was the man in the third. Andres Nocioni then took over in the fourth.
With game-changing performances from a variety of reserves, the Bulls simply had too much for the Pacers in a 113-107 victory Wednesday in Conseco Fieldhouse.
With Hughes racking up a game-high 29 to lead the way, Chicago enjoyed a 67-19 advantage in second-unit scoring – 23-0 in the fourth quarter.
"They're very talented," said Coach Jim O'Brien of the Bulls' second unit. "We're 0-3 against Cleveland and two of the starters that but us three times (Hughes and Drew Gooden) are now coming off their bench along with Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni and a player I respect a lot, Chris Duhon, didn't even play. They're very athletic, very deep and they have a toughness to their team."
The Pacers shot 6-of-19 (.319) and committed four turnovers in the fourth period.
"Fourth-quarter turnovers and wasted opportunities bit us. Tough to lose like that," said O'Brien. "It seems like I say this quite a bit because it happens quite a bit. We're not getting the job done in the fourth quarter and it's cost us a number of winnable basketball games."
The Pacers (22-36) lost their third in a row and sixth in seven games with a familiar pattern. They played well in spurts, opened a 74-63 lead midway through the third quarter, and were then simply outclassed. After the Pacers took their only double-digit lead of the game, it was eliminated by a 14-2 Chicago run – with eight straight points coming from Hughes.
The Bulls (23-34) outscored the Pacers 34-13 in a span of 11½ minutes to build their own double-digit lead, 97-87, with 7:22 remaining.
"We need to improve our mental toughness," said O'Brien, "because if it was where we needed it to be we would be executing the plan that got us the lead."
Mike Dunleavy scored 15 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 11 in a row at one point, and his free throws with 5:51 remaining cut the deficit to 97-94. But Hughes scored five quick points and the Bulls pushed it to 103-94. The Pacers got no closer than five the rest of the way.
Travis Diener scored a career-high 22 to go with nine assists for the Pacers. Troy Murphy scored 19 and Danny Granger 17 with eight rebounds. Jeff Foster pulled 15 rebounds.
Luol Deng (16) and Joakim Noah (11) were the only Bulls starters to score in double figures. In addition to Hughes' 29, the Bulls' bench produced 15 from Gordon, 11 from Nocioni – eight in the fourth quarter – and 10 points and 15 rebounds from Gooden.
Noteworthy …