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Bulls rally to down Clippers in overtime

Dec 18, 2008 - 6:04 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago Bulls rudely awoke the Los Angeles Clippers from their dreams of success on Wednesday.

The Bulls got a four-point play from Ben Gordon to force overtime and took control in the extra session to down the Clippers, 115-109.

"It was not pretty at times but we found a way to win it," Chicago coach Vinny Del Negro said. "Obviously, Ben Gordon came up huge for us and got the game into overtime. After an OT loss last night, winning in OT tonight is great for our guys."

Luol Deng hit a jumper off a broken play when Derrick Rose lost control of the ball with 1:09 left in overtime to give the Bulls a 110-109 lead.

Zach Randolph then charged into Andres Nocioni, giving the ball back to the Bulls with 51 seconds left.

"It was an offensive foul for sure," Nocioni said. "He hit me in the face with his elbow for sure. He is a very strong player and I did what I needed to."

Rose then took the ball to the hole and dropped in a pretty layup and was fouled to give the Bulls a 113-109 advantage.

Larry Hughes missed two free throws before connecting on two more as the Bulls closed out the Clippers, who were looking for their fourth straight win.

Zach Randolph had 30 points, seven rebounds and six assists, the final one a dish to Al Thornton for a layup that gave the Clippers the lead at 102-101 in regulation.

Marcus Camby followed a miss by Randolph to make it 104-101. Camby scored 19 points and grabbed a career-high 27 rebounds.

"Every night I try to play hard and be held accountable on what I can bring to the game," Camby said. "Tonight, it was hard work on the boards."

After Ben Gordon hit 1-of-2 free throws, Randolph was fouled by Eric Gordon and nailed a pair from the line to make it 106-102.

Ben Gordon then hit a 3-point shot and was fouled. He hit the foul shot to complete the four-point play that tied the game at 106-106 with 20.5 seconds left.

"I got a very nice pick from Drew Gooden and tried to get a shot off and hoped I would get fouled," Ben Gordon said. "Obviously, Eric Gordon is a rookie and he made a mistake there. If I took that shot 10 times I would probably miss it nine but it went in tonight."

"It was a disheartening loss for us tonight," Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. "Overall, I thought we played a pretty good game. We just made some crucial mistakes at the end of the gam, which you can't do. Fouling a guy on a three-point shot is difficult to imagine."

Eric Gordon took full responsibility.

"I take the blame for what happened at the end of regulation," he said.

The Clippers had a chance to win it in regulation. Al Thornton's corner jumper didn't fall.

"We had a play we were going to run for Randolph, but Thornton shot it and it hit the rim," Dunleavy said. "Zach is the guy we wanted to shoot the ball."