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Gordon, Bulls top Bobcats, make push for second seed

Apr 14, 2007 - 6:20 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Ben Gordon and the Chicago Bulls are making a push for the second seed in the Eastern Conference.

Gordon scored 20 points and Ben Wallace added 12 and 12 rebounds as the Bulls continued their home dominance in their final appearance at the United Center this season, posting a 100-81 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats.

Kirk Hinrich collected 18 points and eight assists for Chicago (48-32), which moved one-half game ahead of Cleveland (47-32) in the race for the second seed in the Eastern Conference.

"Home was great this year, our fans did a great job supporting us and made it easier to play here," Chicago forward Luol Deng said. "We now have to hang on to the No.2 seed and win 50 games for the season."

"I thought we took care of business but didn't run our offense as good as we could," Gordon said. "We did a great job of defending our home floor during the season, now we have to do it in the playoffs."

The Cavaliers dropped to the fifth spot behind division winners Toronto and Miami and would remain in that position should the clubs end the season in a tie.

It was an easy win for Chicago, which led by double digits throughout, taking its largest lead on rookie Thabo Sefolosha's jumper with two seconds left to make it 100-79. Sefolosha scored nine points on 3-of-4 shooting off the bench.

"This was a good start to winning our last three games, so we can get to 50 wins, we want to do that," Gordon said.

It was Gordon who did most of the damage, shooting 7-of-15 from the field, including 4-of-5 from the arc. Chicago shot 51 percent (39-of-76) from the floor, including 8-of-16 on 3-pointers, to finish the season 31-10 at home.

"Our home record has been great, now we just have to hang on to the No. 2 spot and get to 50 wins for the season," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said.

Rookie Walter Hermann scored 14 points for the Bobcats, who suffered just their second loss in their last six games.

"We got hung up on the speed of the game," Charlotte coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. "The pressure defense Chicago plays speeds things up on you. We would make one pass and take shots, when we missed they grabbed the long rebounds and were gone in transition."