Bulls Win Again

By Benjy Lipsman in News on May 16, 2007 12:50PM

We really thought that Tuesday night would be the end of the Bulls' season after the way that the Pistons demolished them in games one and two in Detroit. In those two games, the Bulls looked like some middle school team playing an NBA team. Sure, the Bulls looked pretty good in game four, at home and with Detroit sitting pretty with a 3-0 series lead. But Detroit couldn't possibly get caught sleeping again, could they?

The Bulls came out red hot at the beginning of game five, hitting six of their first seven shots to open up an early lead and didn't let up all half — hitting 26 of 36, or 72.2%, of their shots. Yet they went into halftime up by only eight. We admit we were pretty frightened by that fact. No team can keep up a torrid shooting pace like that for a whole game, and eight points isn't a very comfortable lead. Not after giving up a 19-point lead in the second half of game three.

While their shooting percentage slipped a little in the second half, they managed to pull away from the Pistons with a 17-2 run midway through the third quarter and never looked back, winning the game 108-92.

Ben Gordon led the hot-shooting Bulls with 28 points on 10 of 16 shooting from the field. Luol Deng added 20, shooting 8 of 13. Kirk Hinrich was the only Bulls starter under 50%, but he dished out 13 assists. Ben Wallace and Andres Nocioni had surprisingly quiet nights, but P.J. Brown and Tyrus Thomas stepped up and had big nights.

Having pulled to within 3-2 in the series, the Bulls host the Pistons for game six at the United Center on Thursday. Can the Bulls use the advantage of their home court to even up the series?

Photo by Reuters/Mike Cassese.