Chicago helped out their playoff chances by taking down Atlanta 106-104 on Saturday night. The Bulls were able to build up a comfortable six-point lead at the halftime break. That quickly dissolved in the third quarter when the Hawks were able to outscore their opponent 38-27. However, the team must have burnt out their offense as they fizzled with just 20 points in the final period. Chicago was able to balance themselves better throughout the game and ended up with the close win. After getting some big wins, the Bulls have finally broken into the top eight.
Hawks run out of gas late
At one point Atlanta had an 89-79 lead with 9:30 left in the contest, but every time it looked like they were going to pull away, Chicago kept coming back. Eventually, the team finally coughed up the lead with two free throws by Jimmy Butler with two seconds left. It's an incredibly difficult loss to swallow as they now sit at 39-37 overall and are alone as the sixth seed in the East. They are just two games away from the wild three-way tie behind them with the Bulls they just played, Miami, and Indiana.
Point guard Dennis Schroder (18.1 ppg, 6.3 apg) piled it on with 29 points, seven boards, and six assists. This was the fourth time in the last five games he was able to put up 24 or more points.
It looked like the Hawks were about to turn the corner with wins over Phoenix and Philadelphia, but instead, they suffer another tough loss down the stretch.
Bulls luck out thanks to Jimmy Butler
Prior to making those free throws at the end of the game, Butler (23.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg) was able to drive in and deliver a layup to tie the contest up.
He was clutch down the stretch and finished with 33 points and a positive passing ratio of eight assists to one turnover. The small forward was dealing with an eye issue but was OK to play, and the Bulls couldn't have done it without him.
Point guard Rajon Rondo (7.8 ppg, 6.6 apg) complimented that with a double-double featuring 25 points and 11 rebounds. He did struggle with a negative passing ratio by turning it over seven times on six assists. That was surprising considering he just had 15 assists and 2 turnovers against Cleveland two nights ago.
