Bulls bounce back from ugly loss to down Suns behind Gasol's 22
An up and down season for the Chicago Bulls took an ugly turn Friday when they lost to the Detroit Pistons in their first game out of the All-Star break.
Making matters worse, the team had to deal with some internal strife due to a missed practice from point guard Derrick Rose. The 2011 MVP issued an apology to his teammates after missing practice on Wednesday. He also expressed that he needs to be a leader.
It appears the Bulls quickly put the issue behind them, as Chicago downed the Phoenix Suns 112-107 on Saturday - the second night of a back-to-back - behind a 22-point, 14-rebound effort from Pau Gasol.
The tightly-contested affair came down to the wire, and it was the Gasol-Rose-Jimmy Butler trio that helped the team escape with a victory.
Gasol nailed a floater with 31 seconds remaining to put the Bulls up four before Phoenix responded immediately on a 3-pointer from Markieff Morris, who came through with a big shot despite a poor shooting (3-of-15) night.
Phoenix fouled Rose after he received an inbounds pass to put him on the line with 15.5 seconds remaining. Rose converted both shots from the charity stripe to make it a three-point game.
In a somewhat perplexing decision, Eric Bledsoe forced a potential game-tying 3-point attempt on the ensuing possession with plenty of time remaining on the clock. He missed, Butler corralled the brick, was fouled and subsequently made both free throws to make it a two-possession game and seal the deal.
Rose scored 16 with five assists, while Butler added 19 points.
It was yet another close, painful loss for the Suns in a season that's had too many, thus hurting their bid to secure the Western Conference's final playoff spot. Phoenix trails the Oklahoma City Thunder by 1.5 games for the eighth seed, and is a half game up on the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Suns have lost seven of their last eight since beating the Bulls the last time they met, which concluded am impressive 16-6 stretch. Phoenix will get a couple easier games against the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets before a pivotal game against the Thunder which could have tie-breaking implications.
Oklahoma City has beaten the Suns twice this season with two more games remaining against each another.
Brandon Knight came off the bench to score 13 points and add five assists in his Suns debut.