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Hinrich, Bulls rally and hold on vs. Sixers

Mar 15, 2007 - 3:45 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- When the Chicago Bulls needed him most, Kirk Hinrich came through.

Hinrich scored a key basket and Luol Deng scored 20 points as the Bulls rallied to edge the Philadelphia 76ers, 88-87.

Hinrich had 14 points and P.J. Brown and reserve Chris Duhon each had 11 for Chicago, which has won three straight on the road and seven of eight overall.

The Bulls trailed 87-86 when Deng drove to the basket and pitched out to Hinrich, whose 18-foot jumper from the corner gave Chicago a one-point lead with 26 seconds remaining.

"I think our confidence level coming down the stretch of games has grown a lot since early in the year," Hinrich said.

"The last three games we haven't necessarily played well," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "You just have to find a way to win them and we did."

After Andre Iguodala failed to hit the rim on a jump shot from the top of the key, the Bulls inbounded the ball and Adrian Griffin was fouled on a layup attempt.

"That first jumper I got a good look at and just rushed it and it just came out wrong," Iguodala said.

On a scramble after Griffin missed both free throws, the referees gave Philadelphia a timeout with 2.1 ticks on the clock.

"I looked back and I actually thought the referee called a travel," said Sixers point guard Andre Miller, who was headed up court with the ball for an attempted game winner. "Somebody called timeout. That is what the coach said to do - make or miss. Whoever called timeout did their job."

However Iguodala missed an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Bulls their fourth straight win.

"It was tough to get the shot in from that position," Iguodala said. "It was hard to run the play that we set up because we didn't know where the ball was going to be at."

Ben Wallace finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, including one to Deng with 4:33 left that tied the game, 84-84, for the first time since the score was knotted at 2-2.

"I thought Ben Wallace was outstanding again tonight," Skiles said.

Deng gave Chicago its first lead of the game 36 seconds later on a layup off a dish from Duhon.

"I struggled in the first-half," said Deng, who scored 16 of his total after halftime. "I had it going on in the second-half. The guys did a good job finding me. We just found a way in the second-half to get the win."

"Obviously, we controlled the game for pretty much the whole time," Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said. "But as the Chicago Bulls do, they continued to play and play, and made shots down the end."

Chicago hammered Philadelphia on the boards, outrebounding them 45-30, including a 20-4 advantage on the offensive glass.

"I think rebounding is something we have to talk about and go over again because it's been a factor the last several nights," Cheeks said. "I thought the first half of the game where they rebounded the ball on the foul line a couple times, we had two big guys going for the ball and the ball ended up in their hands. Rebounding was certainly a factor in this loss."

Iguodala scored 19 points, grabbed five rebounds and handed out six assists, including an ally-oop to Samuel Dalembert with 2:14 left that gave the Sixers their last lead at 87-86.

"It's frustrating because we have to pull out games like this," Iguodala said. "You have to bounce as fast as possible. It's like when you counterpunch, when you get hit you've got to come back quicker."

Willie Green had 16 points and Dalembert added 15 on 7-of-7 shooting from the field for Philadelphia, which has lost two straight following a seven-game winning streak.