The Bulls Saturday endured a historic collapse down the stretch of regulation and into overtime in losing 102-93 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Bulls led 89-83 with 6:33 remaining in regulation after a Tony Snell three pointer. The Bulls then didn’t make a field goal for 5:22 and then got into overtime thanks to a Pau Gasol tipin of a Nikola Mirotic miss. The Bulls then went scoreless in the overtime, missing 10 shots with a pair of turnovers. The Bulls scored one field goal in the last 11:33 of playing time.
Pau Gasol led the Bulls with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Tony Snell added 14 points. Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler with 11 points each shot a combined seven for 28. The Bulls, who fell to 4-3, were outrebounded 58-50 by the young Timberwolves. Minnesota was led by Andrew Wiggins with 31 points. Rookie Karl-Anthony Towns had 17 points and 13 rebounds.
The Bulls opened with the same starting lineup with Doug McDermott still at small forward. The combination of McDermott and Tony Snell replacing him supplied the first quarter offense as the pair had 14 of the Bulls 28 point in the quarter as the Bulls made six of eight three pointers. But the Bulls defense in the first half reverted to Charlotte-opponent level as Minnesota led 30-28 after the first quarter and 58-57 at halftime.
And the Bulls were fortunate to hold the young ‘Wolves under 60 after trailing 54-45 with just under five minutes left in the half. Jimmy Butler then finally scored his first basket of the half after a tough start in which he had difficulty with the athletic Andrew Wiggins, who was brilliant early with am amazing lob dunk he caught at the top of the backboard and four three pointers for 22 first half points. The Bulls rallied back behind Gasol’s 15 points and eight rebounds in the first half. It got a bit cheap early in the third quarter when Kevin Garnett drew a technical foul for an elbow on Doug McDermott. But the lead swayed back and forth most of the third as each defense awoke and both teams shot 33 percent in the third quarter. It was 77-76 Bulls going into the fourth quarter.