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December 31, 2014

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Bulls edge past Pacers for 7th straight victory

JIMMY Butler scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds and the Chicago Bulls held off a late rally to beat the Pacers 92-90 in Indianapolis on Monday for their seventh consecutive National Basketball Association victory.

Spanish star Pau Gasol added 20 points while Derrick Rose contributed 17 despite 5-of-20 shooting for the visiting Bulls, who improved to 22-9, two games behind the Toronto Raptors for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls nearly squandered a 21-point lead with a sluggish fourth quarter in which they were outscored 25-11.

A 3-point play by Chicago’s Mike Dunleavy, who pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds, put the Bulls ahead 75-54 late in the third quarter, but Chicago missed an unprecedented 17 shots in a row until Gasol broke the futility streak with a turnaround jumper with 3:27 left in the fourth quarter.

While the Bulls went silent, the Pacers scored 20 points in a row at one stretch, with Lavoy Allen’s layup midway into the final period putting Indiana in front and Luis Scola’s basket putting the Pacers ahead 86-83.

Butler sank a 3-pointer with just over a minute remaining to put the Bulls back on top and CJ Watson missed a baseline 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game for Indiana.

Chris Copeland came off the bench to lead host Indiana’s six double-figure scorers with 17 points, netting 13 of them in the fourth quarter.

The Pacers slid to 11-21, 11 1/2 games behind the pace-setting Bulls in the Central division.

Elsewhere on Monday, it was: Bucks 104, Hornets 94 (in overtime); Magic 102, Heat 101; Nets 107, Kings 99; Wizards 104, Rockets 103; and Clippers 101, Jazz 97.


 

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