The Bulls snapped out of their recent slump by beating Golden State in overtime on Friday. Now can they have a breakthrough in back-to-back games? When faced with that scenario this season, the Bulls have been dismal. They'll complete a stretch of playing four games in five nights Saturday against Boston at the United Center. The Celtics haven't played since Thursday, when they extended a winning streak to nine games by beating Washington. "(Saturday) we have to have the same mentality and try to do the same type of things," guard Kirk Hinrich said after the Golden State game. "It's pretty evident that when we do that, we can be a decent team."
The last two times the Bulls played back-to-back games, the results were a 32-point loss to Toronto and a 35-point thrashing in Atlanta. Overall, the Bulls are 0-4 on the second night of back-to-backs. The first instance occurred on Oct. 30 when the Bulls were blasted by the hot-shooting Celtics 118-90. Boston knocked down 12 of 24 shots from three-point range in the first meeting between the teams since the epic seven-game playoff series last spring.
Getting Hinrich back from a thumb injury helps the Bulls' depth. Forward Luol Deng, who scored 21 points against the Warriors, played a whopping 52 minutes in the overtime win.
BULLS 96, WARRIORS 91 (OT): The Bulls didn't take advantage of the NBA's worst defense when Golden State visited the United Center on Friday. But they did play enough defense themselves to earn a 96-91 overtime win and create some positive news after losing nine of their previous 10 games. Forward Luol Deng scored 21 points and hit the go-ahead basket on a driving layin with 3:16 left in overtime. When Derrick Rose (15 points) followed with a baseline floater and Deng drilled an 18-foot jumper, the Bulls were in control 95-89 with 1:35 remaining. Rose missed a 14-foot floater at the end of regulation after neither team led by more than three points in the fourth quarter.
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