Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) defends Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago, on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015. The Bulls won the game 104-98. AP
CHICAGO, Illinois—Derrick Rose came up big down the stretch to score 29 points and Jimmy Butler added 26 to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 104-98 victory over Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.
Rose scored 10 points over the final 3 1-2 minutes to lift the Bulls after they blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Oklahoma City tied it with just over 5 minutes left in the game. But Rose’s performance down the stretch helped offset Durant’s 33 points and lifted the Bulls after they got blown out at Charlotte two nights earlier.
Chicago was clinging to a 98-96 lead when Rose hit consecutive jumpers to make it a six-point game with just over a minute remaining.
After Durant hit a jumper, Pau Gasol nailed a sweeping hook with 38.4 seconds left, sealing the win for the Bulls.
Rose, still wearing a face mask after missing almost the entire preseason because of a fractured left orbital, found his rhythm after three straight single-digit scoring games. Butler set a career-high with 21 first-half points and hit four 3-pointers in the game.
Russell Westbrook had 20 points and 10 assists for Oklahoma City while Serge Ibaka scored 17, but the Thunder dropped their third straight.
The Bulls were leading 78-77 early in the fourth when Joakim Noah threw an alley-oop pass to Taj Gibson. That started a nine-point run and Rose finished it by banking in a jumper to make it 87-77 with 8:51 remaining.
But the Thunder answered with a 13-3 run. Durant threw down a fastbreak dunk and hit two free throws to tie it at 90-all with just over 5 minutes left before Gasol nailed a jumper.
The Bulls lead 57-50 at halftime thanks to a monstrous start by Butler.
Whether he was going hard at the rim or burying shots from the outside, Butler was just about unstoppable in the first half. That was enough to lift the Bulls even though Westbrook had 14 points and Durant scored 12 for Oklahoma City.
Butler had the crowd roaring midway through the second quarter when Rose found him cutting along the baseline for a hard dunk. Butler made 3 of 4 3-point attempts in the half.
Rose, still experiencing vision problems, scored 11 in the first half despite missing eight of 12 shots. He made two layups in the final 90 seconds to give the Bulls the seven-point halftime lead.