Chicago Bulls’ Pau Gasol, left, drives against Los Angeles Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan. AP
CHICAGO – Pau Gasol scored 24 points and the Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Clippers 83-80 on Thursday (Friday Manila time)to snap a three-game losing streak.
The Bulls caught a big break midway through the third quarter when Clippers Al-Star Blake Griffin was ejected for a hard foul against Taj Gibson, and they came away with the win after blowing a 16-point lead.
Derrick Rose banked in a floater with 45 seconds left to make it 83-77 before Los Angeles’ Wesley Johnson buried a 3-pointer. The Clippers then rebounded a miss by Chicago’s Jimmy Butler with 6 seconds left, but Chris Paul’s tying 3-point attempt hit the rim just before the buzzer.
Butler finished with 14 points after pouring in a career-high 36 the previous night against Boston.
Rose scored all of his 11 points in the second half, and Gibson finished with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Griffin led the Clippers with 18 points. Paul scored 12, while DeAndre Jordan added 10 points and 14 rebounds. The Clippers hit 10 of 22 3-pointers but came up short after winning three straight and six of seven.
The Bulls were leading by 14 when Griffin knocked Gibson to the floor with a blow to the face as he went up for a shot inside with 5:59 left in the third.
Griffin helped Gibson to his feet. But after a review, the officials called a flagrant foul 2, meaning an automatic ejection for Griffin.
Gibson made both foul shots to make it a 16-point game, but the Clippers came roaring back. The lead was down to 10 going into the fourth, and the Clippers tied it at 66-all on Josh Smith’s 3-pointer with 7:19 remaining.
But the Bulls, outscored a combined 102-70 in the final quarter the previous three games, made the big plays Thursday.
Butler hit a jumper and took a charge from Lance Stephenson. Gibson threw down a thunderous put-back dunk off a missed 3 by Aaron Brooks and Rose nailed a 3 from the top to make it 73-66 with 5:15 left.