December 16th, 2005
Chicago (121) at Detroit (119)
Gordon's game winner sinks Pistons
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Boxscore ]
No double overtime was necessary this time. Ben Gordon's 15 foot jumper as time expired gave Chicago its second straight victory over the defending Eastern Conference champions, who fell to 10-10 after tonight's loss. Gordon combined with Shawn Kemp and Tyson Chandler to score 25 of Chicago's 36 fourth quarter points as the Bulls came back after trailing the entire game.
The run began in the closing minutes of the third quarter however. Having fallen behind 88-74 late in the third, the Bulls went with a lineup of Tyson Chandler, Shawn Kemp, Eric Piatkowski, Wesley Person and Jannero Pargo and made an unlikely 11-2 run as Pargo, Piatkowski and Person all hit threes in consecutive trips up the floor. Person nailed another three as time expired but although it appeared to come before the buzzer, it was waved off.
Detroit maintained control during the final quarter but Chicago chipped away at the lead, eventually cutting the deficit to one at 116-115 with less than two minutes remaining. On the next play Chauncey Billups left the game after Shawn Kemp inadvertently hit him in the face while attempting to block a layup. Lindsey Hunter split the two free throws and Shawn Kemp made a layup to tie the game at 117. Chicago played excellent defense forcing Ben Wallace into a three point attempt that missed badly. Andres Nocioni grabbed the rebound and Chicago called timeout with 2.4 seconds left.
After the timeout, Luol Deng found Gordon on the inbound. Gordon spun quickly to the foul line where he was met by Rasheed Wallace. Earlier in the quarter Chicago had salvaged a near-steal by Prince when Gordon nailed a long turnaround three over Sheed to beat the shot clock. Once again, Gordon eluded the taller Wallace and sank the jumper as time expired, giving Chicago the 121-119 victory.
Ben Wallace led all scorers with a career high 27 points, edging his previous high of 26 set against Chicago earlier this year in the Pistons' triple overtime loss. All five Pistons starters scored in double digits but their bench only scored 20 points, less than half the production of the Bulls' bench and two fewer than Tyson Chandler's total for the game. Chandler also had 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks.
Coach's Diary
December 16th - Very lucky
As satisfying as the victory over Detroit was, we were lucky. Ben hit a great shot to give us the win and the run in the final two minutes of the third quarter was incredible but that's not the way to win. We haven't been playing our greatest basketball the last few games so we were very fortunate to be able to steal this one away from Detroit. Still, we're leaving the Palace with the victory and while we're still around .500 any win is a good win.
I'm still unsure of what to do with the starting lineup. I'd like to bring Tyson back at centre but it's hard to make any changes in our frontcourt right now. I might wait another couple of games and see which lineups work best. That will give me an idea of the best unit to put out there at the beginning.
December 17th, 2005
Billups to miss time
DETROIT, MI -- The Pistons may be without starting point guard Chauncey Billups for up to two weeks with a broken nose. Billups collided with Shawn Kemp with 1:32 remaining in last night's loss to the Chicago Bulls and was forced to leave the game. Billups has been averaging a team high 21.3 ppg and 7.6 apg in addition to 4.2 rpg and 2.4 spg.