Bulls squeak by Cavs
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 12:52 AM ET
The Associated Press
Chicago Bulls' Luol Deng, left, and teammate Joakim Noah stop Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James from scoring in the final seconds a close game Thursday. (Tony Dejak/Associated Press)For a split second, LeBron James appeared to be on his way to bailing out the Cleveland Cavaliers once more.
Luol Deng and Joakim Noah put a stop to that.
Chicago's forwards double-teamed James and denied the superstar on a drive in the final seconds as the Chicago Bulls ended Cleveland's three-game winning streak with an 86-85 win Thursday night.
It was the Cavaliers' second home loss this season.
James thought there was sufficient bumping to get a foul called on either Deng or Noah.
The Bulls, and the officials, saw it differently.
"I didn't feel like it was even close to being a foul," said Noah, who left guarding Shaquille O'Neal on the decisive play to help his teammate.
"I wasn't worried because there was no contact at all."
Derrick Rose had 14 points and 11 assists and John Salmons added 14 points for the Bulls, who dropped the Cavs to 1-2 at home.
Cleveland didn't lose its second game at home last year until April 16, finishing the year 45-3 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Down 86-85, the Cavaliers, who sputtered on offence all night, buckled down and made the defensive stop they needed by forcing a shot-clock violation.
Cleveland called a full time out and set up a play, but before the Cavaliers could inbound the ball, Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro called a 20-second time out to reset his defence.
James took the pass and got a step on Deng in the lane. As he neared the basket, Noah came over and bumped James, who lost the ball as he elevated.
It went out of bounds with two-tenths of a second left, and the referees awarded it to Chicago. Just to make sure, they watched a video replay to confirm their call.
Cleveland's offence never got into a flow and the Cavs didn't help themselves by going 12 of 20 on free throws.
"We had a chance to win at the end," O'Neal said. "If we limit some of our silly mistakes, we'll be fine."
