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Roy, Blazers survive two overtimes, defeat Bulls

Jan 4, 2008 - 5:46 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Brandon Roy and the Portland Trail Blazers battled fatigue and extra minutes to come out on top.

Roy scored 25 points and tied his career-high with 11 assists as the Trail Blazers posted a 115-109 double-overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday.

Travis Outlaw scored 21 points and fellow reserve Jarrett Jack scored 17 to put Portland out front for good.

"I told Jarrett that we were going to be running some plays for him when Brandon had to sit down," Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. "Brandon was huge for us. And so was James Jones at the end of the game."

The Trail Blazers, who have won 15 of their last 16 games, have also won five of six on the road - including back-to-back games at Minnesota and Chicago.

"That was a gut-check game for us," Roy said. "The Bulls are a very capable team. It was a big win for us. We were able to go out on the road and win. Everyone stepped up for us."

Portland, which trailed by as many as 13 in the third quarter, knotted up the contest at 69-69 heading into the final session.

With the score tied at 108-108 in double overtime, Bulls guard Ben Gordon attempted a 3-pointer but lost the ball with 22 seconds left. Jack, hovering nearby, gained possession and made a layup as he was fouled by Gordon with 19 seconds remaining.

"I double-pumped, but James didn't go for the fake," Gordon said. "After that, I don't know what happened until they called the foul on me on the other end."

After the resulting free throw by Jack gave the Blazers a 111-108 advantage, Joe Smith split a pair of foul shots to cut the Bulls deficit to two with 14 seconds left.

However, Jones made two free throws to up Portland's lead to 113-109 with 12 ticks on the clock, before his block of a Andres Nocioni 3-pointer helped put him back on the charity stripe with nine seconds remaining.

Jones, who had eight points off the bench, drilled the two foul shots to finish the scoring.

Roy connected on 7-of-15 from the floor and 10-of-11 from the free throw line while LaMarcus Aldridge had 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who shot 44 percent (42-of-96) from the field.

"Winning 15 of 16 games is special at any level," Roy said. "This team is just learning how to win tough games on the road. We're just going to approach each game one at a time and see where that takes us."

Gordon scored 32 points and Smith had a season-high 31 along with 11 boards for his third double-double of the season.

Kirk Hinrich scored 12 points and Ben Wallace also had 12 along with 14 boards for Chicago, which shot 41 percent (43-of-104) and is 0-12 this season when allowing an opponent to cross the century mark in scoring.

"We just have to find a way to hold teams under 100," Smith said. "We did. But that was a tie at the end of regulation. Our offense is keyed by good defensive play. We have to get back to that."