Hawks 83, Bulls 80
Al Horford had 31 points and 16 rebounds and scored the go-ahead basket to lead the Atlanta Hawks to a dramatic 83-80 comeback victory over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.
Atlanta (37-24) never led until Horford’s dunk made the score 81-80 lead with 29.4 seconds left. Joe Johnson scored on a breakaway dunk nine seconds later and Chicago’s Derrick Rose and Kyle Korver each missed game-tying 3-point attempts in the final four seconds.
Luol Deng scored 15 points for Chicago (41-18), which scored the game’s first 14 points and led by as many as 19 points in the first half.
Keith Bogans’ layup finished the Bulls’ run of 14 consecutive points over the first four minutes of the game. Chicago’s lead reached 44-25 on Joakim Noah’s dunk with 2:40 left in the half. Chicago led 50-33 at intermission.
Atlanta opened the second half with a 12-2 run. The Hawks pulled with 70-69 on Johnson’s 20-footer with 6:18 to play and finally caught the Bulls at 79 on Horford’s free throw with 56 seconds left.
Atlanta forward Josh Smith missed the game with a sprained ligament in his right knee.