Bulls Fail to Close out the Series

by terah on 23. Apr, 2011 in Featured

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA (NEWSTABULOUS) – The Pacers disappointed the Bulls this afternoon in Game 4 of the first 7-game series where the Bulls were expecting a sweep.

Chicago fans traveled by the thousands hoping to celebrate a first round close out victory. The Pacers lead the entire game avoiding elimination by holding off a raged rally to get the win over the Bulls 89-84.

The Pacers were not only up against Bulls’ superstar, Derrick Rose, and the 3-0 deficit they were in but they also faced with a hostile environment on their home floor at Conseco Fieldhouse. The crowd surprised Pacers center, Jeff Foster, who has played for the Pacers for his entire 12 -year NBA career. He said:

“I have seen every professional game in this arena, and I have never seen anything like that.”

The young Pacer team maintained their composure. Pacers interim coach, Frank Vogel, explains:

“We’ve lost games like this recently where they have come back…Today we grew, and we held them off.”

Bulls lead the series 3-1 and will have their next chance to close it out at home Tuesday.

Top scorer for the Pacers was Danny Granger, who had 24 points with four free throws in the final 14.1 seconds of the game while being booed. He said:

“Maybe there were a few flashbacks…More importantly, I was just trying to get my team to calm down. We lost our poise those last two or three minutes and I was just trying to get them calmed down a little bit.”

Carlos Boozer missed a 3-pointer that could have tied the game for the Bulls. In the last few seconds, they were looking to set up Luol Deng for the final shot.

Joakim Noah, who led the Bulls with 21 points and 14 rebounds, said:

“I caught the ball at the elbow and I was supposed to set a backscreen for Luol…They played it well, they denied the dribble handoff. Really, it was a mental mistake. When you’re in that position, you’ve got to call timeout, so we learn from it.”

Vogel had been disappointed that Indiana hadn’t been able to get a win against the top seed in the East. He explained:

“I think we deserve to be in the series…I’m upset that it’s 1-3. We should be up in the series.”

Bulls’ number one player, Derek Rose, scored 15 points and had 10 assists playing with a sprained ankle he obtained in the first quarter. He said:

“A sprained ankle is going to slow you down a little bit, but all of my shots were on line…They were just short. No excuses. It’s the layoffs. I’ve sprained my ankle many times, you’ve just got to make shots.”

Chicago was down 84-71 with 2:17 left in the game before starting a final rally in their last attempt to get the win.

Deng cut Indiana’s lead with a three point play to 84-77 with just 1:36 to go. A goal-tending call against Roy Hibbert on a shot by Boozer reduced the deficit to 84-79 with 46.5 seconds remaining. A steal followed with a dunk by Rose pulled the Bulls within 84-81.

Mike Dunleavy was only able to hit the second of two free throws with 17.9 seconds left to make it 85-81.

Noah made a layup with 15.3 seconds to go and was fouled by Foster while trying to take a charge. Noah sunk the free throw to cut Indiana’s lead to 85-84.

The Pacers were barely able to get the ball inbounds, but Granger was fouled with 14.1 seconds left in the game. Granger managed to tune out the boos on his home court and made both free throws to make the score 87-84.

Boozer’s 3-point shot fell short and was rebounded by Granger, who made his last two free throws with just a second to go to win the game.

Things almost fell apart in the last few plays of the game for Indiana again, but the Pacers found a way to fight through. Granger said:

“The mentality is play it like it’s the last game you ever play in your life…We played like that tonight.”

The Bulls need to take these next few days to regroup and find a way to close the series on Tuesday. Noah said:

“It’s a tough loss…We didn’t play well in the first half, so we definitely have to do a better job with that, and I think we’re a team that deals with adversity pretty well.”

photo: rds.yahoo.com