NBA Game Summary - Chicago at Indiana

01.21.2006

Indianapolis, IN (Basketball News) - Andres Nocioni tallied 20 points off the bench and the Chicago Bulls won their first game in Indiana since the Michael Jordan era with a 101-89 victory over the Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Kirk Hinrich scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Tyson Chandler compiled 15 points and 14 rebounds for Chicago, which won its first contest in Indiana since March 17, 1998.

Ben Gordon added 11 for the Bulls, who comfortably rolled to victory after playing consecutive close contests. Gordon drained a jumper at the buzzer to defeat the New York Knicks, 106-104, in overtime on Wednesday and Houston beat the Bulls, 109-108, in double-overtime on Friday night.

"I thought it was a great effort. Tyson (Chandler) was a big lift. I thought he had his best game of the year," Chicago head coach Scott Skiles said. "Our game was proactive and most importantly, we got a lot of rebounds and second chance opportunities."

Stephen Jackson scored a game-high 21 points and Austin Croshere added 16 points off the bench for Indiana, which lost for the third time in four games.

Jermaine O’Neal contributed 13 points and nine rebounds in the loss.

After Croshere buried a trey with 5:01 left in the third period to tie the game at 61-61, Indiana went just over 10 minutes without a field goal.

In that time, Chicago went on a 24-10 scoring streak to put the game away. The Bulls scored nine of the final 10 points of the third stanza capped by five consecutive free throws by Nocioni to take a 75-64 lead.

Chicago eventually took a 84-67 lead on Chandler’s three-point play with 8:20 remaining in the game.

Finally, Jackson made a turnaround jumper — the Pacers first field goal since Croshere’s third-quarter trey — with 6:59 left. However, Nocioni scored twice in the paint moments later to push the margin to 89-71.

The Bulls cruised to victory from there.

"We got out-played tonight. We have got to play harder from start to finish. It was a bad effort for this team," said O’Neal. "It’s hard to say what’s wrong. We shouldn’t have any excuses at this point in the season."

Indiana held a 27-20 lead after one stanza and kept a slight 51-50 edge at the half.

O’Neal played just over 30 minutes after missing the last three games with a sprained ankle...Chicago is 9-10 on the road this season...Indiana dropped to 12-6 at home...The Bulls owned a 51-35 edge on the glass...Chicago converted 24-of-27 from the charity stripe...Indiana made 30-of-39 free throws, but shot just 38.8 percent from the floor.

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