On Thursday night , the Chicago Bulls defeated the Dallas Mavericks at the United Center by a score of 98-91. This was the fourth consecutive loss of the Mavericks.
The topscorer for the Bulls was Ben Gordon who scored 35 points. Luol Deng contributed 20 points and Derrick Rose, the rookie, added 16 points out of which 14 were collected in the third quarter. The topscorer for the Mavericks was Josh Howard who added 21 points and 11 rebounds. He was playing after missing 2 games due to a sore wrist. Erick Dampier finished with 16 points.
In the 1st quarter, the Mavericks led by 24-5 in less than 6 minutes after the game started. Out of these, Howard’s share was of 11 points and the team hit 8 out of the initial 9 shots. On the contrary, the Bulls missed 12 straight shots. However, the Bulls found their form soon and scored 13 straight points and reduced the lead to 4. Gordon had contributed 7 of these points. At the end of the 1st quarter, the Mavericks led by 10 points. In this quarter, the Mavericks shot 55 percent and the Bulls shot 28 percent. Surprisingly, in the 2nd quarter, these percentages were reversed. In this quarter, the Bulls were led by Deng on a 22-9 run with 12 points. At halftime, the Bulls led the Mavericks by a score of 51-50. At the beginning of the second half, Rose added 8 points in a 15-6 spurt and the Bulls led by 66-56. During the 3rd quarter, the Bulls took control of the proceedings due to Rose’s play and at the end of the quarter led by 78-70. In the 4th quarter, Larry Hughes of the Bulls hit a jumper and then completed a 3-pointer and a steal. Then, Tyrus Thomas had two free throws, Gordon had a drive and Deng had a jumper in an 11-0 run. At this juncture, 6:08 was the time left and the Bulls led by 96-79. This lead was reduced to 7 by Mavericks due to the free throw by Howard, but several shots were missed to decrease the lead further.
