USA - Bulls stay alive in Eastern Conference semi-final

NEW YORK (NBA) - Ben Wallace, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon had their best games in this season's play-offs as the Chicago Bulls avoided their first post-season sweep in 20 years with a 102-87 victory Sunday over the Detroit Pistons.

Great Britain international Luol Deng had 25 points and 13 rebounds for the Bulls in the Eastern Conference semi-final showdown.

Chicago again got off to a good start and this time avoided the collapse that cost them Game Three, putting them on the business end of the broom.

"We looked much more like ourselves tonight," Chicago coach Scott Skiles said. "We played harder overall and they missed more shots than they have. We certainly didn't coast in with the win, that's for sure. Things got a little hairy in the fourth quarter."

Chicago have not been swept in any series since 1987 and in a best-of-seven series since 1981, both at the hands of Boston.

"I don't care who it is, we are a better team than getting swept in a series four games straight," Wallace said of almost being swept by his former team. "We need to still come out and fight."

The Bulls easily could have succumbed to the most demoralizing statistic in sports: NBA teams facing a 3-0 deficit are 0 for 81 all-time. Instead, Chicago played by far their best all-around game of the series, shooting 49% (35 of 71) from the field and dominating the backboards, 51-33.

"This win means we are still alive and we live for another day," said Hinrich, a guard with Team USA at the FIBA World Championship last summer. "Right now we have to take it one game at a time, we know we will have to play our best game of the year Tuesday in game five."

Leading the way was Wallace, who had been the emotional leader of the Pistons for six years before joining the Bulls this season. He was criticized for his poor play in this series but responded with 11 points and 17 rebounds.

"I thought we played well and played like we can play," Wallace said. "We had good energy and everybody stepped up, it was good to get a win and stay alive."

Hinrich had a solid game with 19 points and 10 assists. He teamed with Deng to carry the offense in the first half while the Bulls continued to wait for Gordon to snap out of his funk.

That finally happened in the second half, when Gordon scored 15 of his 19 points. He had nine points in the fourth quarter, squelching a comeback by the Pistons.

Billups had 23 points and eight assists for the Pistons, who were denied a chance at consecutive four-game sweeps for the first time in franchise history.

"Coming here and winning one game is good even though we wanted to win two," Billups said. "Now we go home for Game Five and being up 3-1 is a lot better than 2-2."

Detroit shot 37% (31 of 83), had three players foul out and endured another scoreless game from center Chris Webber, who also was blanked in Game Three.

Still, the Pistons cut a 21-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to 90-83 with just over three minutes to go. The top seeds are secure in heading home for Game Five on Wednesday, when they will try to wrap up their fifth straight trip to the conference finals.

Skiles knows of the challenge his team now faces heading back to Detroit.

"It will be an interesting game, our guys have not gone through this in that kind of atmosphere yet," Skiles said. "They do not want to come back here (Chicago) and they have blown us out twice up there, it will not be easy to win."

Jazz in command after win over Warriors

Derek Fisher and Carlos Boozer came up huge for the Utah Jazz and helped push the Golden State Warriors to the brink of elimination.

Fisher scored 14 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of clutch three-pointers, as Utah posted a 115-101 win over Golden State on Sunday night in Game Four of the Western Conference semi-finals.

The Jazz lead the series, 3-1, and can close out the Warriors in Game Five Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.

The Jazz opened the final period on a 11-4 run to take an 86-82 lead. Al Harrington cut the lead to 86-85 with a shot from the arc and Stephen Jackson drove the lane and found Matt Barnes for a dunk that put Golden State up for the first time in period at 87-86.

However, on the following possession, Matt Harpring found Fisher in the left corner and he buried a three-pointer that gave Utah a 89-87 lead, one they never relinquished. He later hit another shot from the arc with 2:15 that put Utah up, 100-93.

Meanwhile, Boozer got back on track after attempting just 10 shots in Friday's 125-105 loss. He scored 34 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as Utah got back to what it does best by pounding the ball inside.

Point guard Deron Williams also bounced back from a poor performance as he scored 20 points and added 13 assists for the Jazz, who look to improve to 7-0 in series in which they have lead 2-0.

Williams, scored just 14 points and had seven of Utah's 25 turnovers in Friday's loss.

Williams and Boozer worked the pick-and-roll to perfection and helped Utah shoot 51% (37 of 72) from the floor. Utah held a huge edge on the boards, 52-36, and made 37 of 43 from the free throw line.

Harrington scored 24 points for Golden State, who lost for the first time in five home games this post-season.

Davis, who scored 32 points on Friday, did not have a field goal until there were five minutes left in the first quarter. He finished with 15 points on six of 16 shooting in his worst performance of the post-season.

Jackson carried the Warriors in the first half, scoring 15 points and hitting three three-pointers.

Tempers flared toward the end of the game when Richardson was ejected when he clothes-lined on Turkey international Mehmet Okur in the lane.

Jeff Taylor
FIBA