• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Bulls' fourth-quarter surge trips Knicks

Dec 10, 2008 - 5:00 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Larry Hughes hit a 3-point shot off a feed from Ben Gordon with 55 seconds left to cap a late run that gave the Chicago Bulls a 105-100 victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday.

"I wont turn down the big shot, I will never turn them down," Hughes said. "If my teammates keep finding me, I will take the shot."

"That shot felt good because the first two I shot were almost airballs. Ben gave me a nice pass, we needed this win so it is nice to hit one when we needed it."

Following Hughes' shot, the teams traded missed layups. Drew Gooden was fouled and hit both free throws to make it 102-97 with 16 seconds left. Gooden scored a season-high 22 points.

"I didn't feel like I was up to par tonight, so I just tried to play with energy," Gooden said. "The scoring just came within our offense. I knew I could help on defense."

Quentin Richardson then missed a shot from behind the arc and Gordon was fouled. He knocked down 1-of-2 shots. Richardson then canned a three, but the Knicks were forced to foul again and Luol Deng hit both shots to make it 105-100.

Al Harrington scored 28 points for the Knicks. Chris Duhon, who played his first three years with the Bulls before accepting a free-agent contract from the Knicks in the offseason, had 15 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds in his return to the Windy City.

"It was pretty good, but we didn't get the win," Duhon said. "The win would have been the icing on the cake."

Ben Gordon had 17 points and six assists for Chicago. Deng added 16 points while Derrick Rose chipped in with 15 and seven assists.

"I don't think we played well but we found a way to win," Chicago coach Vinny Del Negro said. "The Knicks make you play a little unconventional, with the way they spread the court. We struggled with their pick-and-roll combinations. We won but it was not pretty."

Neither team shot well from behind the arc, but the Knicks had a particularly bad game, hitting 6-of-28 from long range. Chicago was 5-of-19.

"We just didn't put the ball in the basket," Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We had good looks and could not finish. We have to learn how to win at the end of games."

The first half was back and forth with the Bulls surging to a 40-32 lead before the Knicks put together an 8-0 run. The highlight was a DePaul-to-DePaul alley-oop as Wilson Chandler connected with Richardson for the superb jam and a foul. When Richardson hit the free throw, the game was tied at 40-40.

The Bulls led 50-48 at the break after Duhon made a pretty drive and hoop for the Knicks.

Harrington scored 17 points by intermission.

"I would trade all my points tonight for the win," Harrington said. "I think we allowed the game to get away from us. I think we will kick ourselves in the butt all night about this one. But we have to put this one behind us quickly, we have another tough game (Wednesday at New Jersey)."

The see-saw continued in the third quarter with the Bulls extending to a short lead and the Knicks making a run to get back into it. Harrington made a pretty move and hit a short jumper at the buzzer to bring the Knicks within 78-77.

The Knicks put together a 7-0 run to go up 92-87, but the Bulls countered with one of their own to make it 94-92. Back and forth they went as Gordon hit from behind the arc to make it 97-97 with less than three minutes to go.