Bulls Rally For Win Over Knicks

By ESPN

The Chicago Bulls struggled for long stretches. They looked fatigued at times on the second night of back-to-back games. And they found a way to win anyway.

Kris Dunn scored 17 points, including two clutch free throws in the final seconds, and the surging Bulls rallied to beat the New York Knicks 92-87 on Wednesday.

Chicago trailed by as many as 15 in the first half, but shut down New York down the stretch of its ninth win in 11 games. The Knicks managed just three points in the final 5 1/2 minutes.

Lauri Markkanen scored 12 points for the Bulls (12-22), who were coming off a 115-106 win at Milwaukee. Justin Holiday and Robin Lopez had 11 points apiece.

"I did think we hung in there," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "We spent a lot of energy (Tuesday) night. I don't think we came out with great energy, our focus wasn't great, we were turning the ball over. We did things we had not been doing."

Kristaps Porzingis led the Knicks with 23 points, and Courtney Lee had 17. New York (17-17) has dropped three straight.

Porzingis, guarded mostly by Markkanen, was shut out after he made a jumper with 6:58 left.

"We got content to walking it up the court," New York coach Jeff Hornacek said. "We weren't able to get into easy early stuff. Instead we were setting up, they were switching and we were spending too much time looking for KP and then the shot clock would start going down."

The Knicks led for most of the night before Holiday hit a corner 3-pointer that tied it at 86 with 3:01 left.

Neither team scored for the next two-plus minutes before Dunn found Markkanen ahead of the field for a dunk.

New York's Jarrett Jack was fouled with 8.5 seconds left and had a chance to tie it, but converted just 1 of 2 free throws. Dunn was fouled with 7.8 seconds to go and made both for a 90-87 lead.

Following a timeout, Enes Kanter's 3-point attempt missed badly and bounced out of bounds. Holiday then iced the game with a pair of free throws.

The Bulls posted a 104-102 victory in the first meeting between the teams on Dec. 9 at the United Center, with Dunn hitting a pair of free throws with 2.9 seconds left.

"There are gonna be games that are ugly, but it all comes down to stops," Dunn said. "We take pride in our defensive stops. I think we're very resilient."

Mavericks 98, Pacers 94

The Dallas Mavericks finally have another road win.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 15 points, Harrison Barnes made the tiebreaking free throw with 37.7 seconds left and the Mavericks snapped an eight-game road losing streak with a 98-94 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night.

Nowitzki, the franchise's career leading scorer in his 20th season, scored six points in the final quarter to help the Mavericks rally for their third win in 17 road games.

"I'm real happy for the guys with the way the season's gone. It's been a tough go," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "This group has a ton of character and a lot of fight. It's the first time we've won consecutive back-to-back games, which is a big deal. So, we want to try to take this momentum and continue it."

Barnes and Yogi Ferrell each scored 13 points. Ferrell, an Indianapolis native, hit a key 3-pointer to take a four-point lead with 2:09 remaining.

The Pacers led 90-84 with 5 minutes remaining.

"We never got down on ourselves, especially in the first half when they were shooting the heck out of the ball," Ferrell said. "We just brought it right back at them and tried to score and in the second half we just wanted to make it a lot harder for them to make shots."

Lance Stephenson, Myles Turner and Darren Collison had 16 points apiece for the Pacers, who played without injured leading scorer Victor Oladipo for the first time and struggled down the stretch.

"We were right there," Stephenson said. "I'm not going to say (the loss) was because (Oladipo) was out. We were right there."

Stephenson's layup tied it at 94, but he committed a costly turnover on the Pacers' next possession with 28 seconds remaining that the Mavericks converted into an uncontested layup.

"We just couldn't get shots that we needed down the stretch to convert," Collison said.

The Mavericks rallied from an early seven-point deficit as reserve center Dwight Powell scored 11 first-half points. The visitors led for much of the third quarter before the Pacers surged behind Bojan Bogdanovic and Turner to take a 74-71 lead entering the final quarter.

Wednesday, December 27 Scoreboard

Boston 102, Charlotte 91

Dallas 98, Indiana 94

Atlanta 113, Washington 99

Chicago 92, New York 87

Minnesota 128, Denver 125 (OT)

New Orleans 128, Brooklyn 113

Oklahoma City 124, Toronto 107

Sacramento 109, Cleveland 95

Golden State 126, Utah 101

Memphis 109, Los Angeles Lakers 99

Thursday, December 28 Schedule (All Times Central)

Detroit at Orlando, 6 p.m.

Houston at Boston, 7 p.m.

Minnesota at Milwaukee, 7 p.m.

New York at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m.

Philadelphia at Portland, 9:30 p.m.

Friday, December 29 Schedule (All Times Central)

Houston at Washington, 6 p.m.

Atlanta at Toronto, 6:30 p.m.

Brooklyn at Miami, 7 p.m.

Indiana at chicago, 7 p.m.

Dallas at New Orleans, 7 p.m.

Milwaukee at Oklahoma City, 7 p.m.

Phoenix at Sacramento, 9 p.m.

Charlotte at Golden State, 9:30 p.m.

Los Angeles Clippers at Los Angeles Lakers, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, December 30 Schedule (All Times Central)

San Antonio at Detroit, 6 p.m.

Miami at Orlando, 6 p.m.

New York at New Orleans, 6 p.m.

Portland at Atlanta, 6:30 p.m.

Cleveland at Utah, 7 p.m.

Memphis at Golden State, 7:30 p.m.

Philadelphia at Denver, 8 p.m.

Sunday, December 31 Schedule (All Times Central)

Chicago at Washington, 2:30 p.m.

Minnesota at Indiana, 4 p.m.

Brooklyn at Boston, 4:30 p.m.

Los Angeles Clippers at Houston, 6 p.m.

Dallas at Oklahoma City, 6 p.m.

Charlotte at Los Angeles Clippers, 6 p.m.

Memphis at Sacramento, 6 p.m.

Philadelphia at Phoenix, 7 p.m.

Monday, January 1 Schedule (All Times Central)

Orlando at Brooklyn, 6:30 p.m.

Milwaukee at Toronto, 6:30 p.m.

Portland at Chicago, 7 p.m.

Los Angeles Clippers at Minnesota, 7 p.m.