Chicago ? Their 0-9 start seems to be well behind them and the Chicago Bulls are playing with confidence and energy. They’re a hungry young team enjoying each victory.
Eddy Curry had season highs with 23 points and 13 rebounds Saturday night and the Bulls hung on after blowing a big lead to beat Indiana for their first three-game win streak in two years.
“They have a good group of young, big guys and their guard play has gotten very good,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said after Chicago’s 85-71 victory. “Their size hurt us.”
The Bulls last had a three-game winning streak in December 2002, but haven’t won four in a row since 1998 when their last championship team ran off 13 straight victories.
“We’re just happy we’re starting to turn a corner and playing good ball,” Curry said. “The mistakes we’ve been making in the past, we are starting to cut down on them a little bit.”
Now 5-9 since the suspensions of Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O’Neal following a brawl in Detroit, the depleted Pacers stayed close behind the play of Jamaal Tinsley.
Tinsley scored a career-high 33 points before he was ejected after getting two technical fouls with 52 seconds to play. Jeff Foster had 18 rebounds to go with 12 points for Indiana, but Reggie Miller had a season-low four points on 2-of-13 shooting.
“I’m just going out there playing. The ball is in my hands more often to make plays and to score,” Tinsley said.
“I wanted him to create. He made a lot of good things happen,” Carlisle said. “I just thought we were in a situation tonight where we were down on manpower. We needed him.”
Kirk Hinrich, who finished with 19 points, hit a 3-pointer and then fed Curry for a dunk and a three-point play as the Bulls went up 67-50 in the third quarter.
But Indiana, as it has done all season, kept battling and chopped the deficit to 70-62 with a quarter left as backup Marcus Haislip had two baskets.
When Tinsley made two more baskets in the fourth, the Pacers were within four, but Hinrich’s jumper and Othella Harrington’s driving basket and two free throws ended the run and pushed the lead to 10.
“The momentum changed and really switched to them,” Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. “We’re not often in a position where were are up 12 or 14 or 17 points at a manageable point in the game. We have to learn how to finish a team off.”
The Bulls never trailed, jumping out by 13 in the first quarter when Curry made his first five shots to score 11 and Hinrich was 4-for-5 with 10 points.
Chicago had a 40-28 lead after Curry took lob passes from Hinrich and Andres Nocioni and slammed down thunderous dunks.
But Tinsley led a 10-2 Pacers run, and Indiana cut the margin to four before trailing by six at the half. Tinsley had 13 of his 18 first-half points in the second quarter.
Notes: The Bulls are 7-6 since their 0-9 start. … Tinsley’s previous high was 30. He was 11-of-31 from the field. … Curry fouled out with 2:45 left. … Indiana got little from starting rookie center David Harrison, who had to leave the game with 4:50 left in the first quarter and went to the locker room with back spams. He returned to start the second half but lasted only a minute and a half before being forced to leave. … Bulls F Antonio Davis left the game with 9:34 left in the third quarter after he was hit in the side of the head by James Jones as he was driving to the basket. Davis sustained a bruised jaw and a mild concussion and will be re-examined Sunday. … Indiana’s Anthony Johnson (hamstring) and Austin Croshere (ankle) also sat out.
