The Indiana Pacers lost 116-89 to the Chicago Bulls in Game 5 of a highly competitive first-round NBA Playoff series.
During the first four games, the Pacers were equally as aggressive and intense as the Bulls, but Game 5 was a different story.
With Derrick Rose scoring 25 points and completely breaking things open with three consecutive 3-pointers in a devastating third-quarter run aided by Bogans and Korver, the Bulls played their best game by far and closed the series out in the United Center.
Danny Granger led Indiana with 20 points. Tyler Hansbrough chipped in a double-double, putting up 14 points and 11 rebounds. Roy Hibbert added 11 and Dahntay Jones had 10 points for the Pacers.
Indiana only shot 39 percent from the field and was plagued with turnovers, committing 20 while only managing 14 assists.
Luol Deng added 24, Keith Bogans 15, Joakim Noah 14 and Kyle Korver 13 for the Bulls, who were 14-of-31 (45 percent) from the 3-point line. Whenever the Pacers created any amount of momentum, the Bulls would step back and drain a 3-pointer to keep the game out of reach for Indiana.
Coming into Game 5, the Pacers were leading the Bulls in overall scoring, putting up almost two more points than Chicago, but only accounting for one win in the first four games. They also led the series for 71 percent of the minutes; they simple couldn’t close the first three games.
This series was a perceived mismatch when it initially began, but after five hard-fought games, the Pacers can hold their heads high.
It took the Bulls roughly three minutes to open up their biggest lead of the series, hitting six of their first seven shots. They also rebounded their only miss for a second-chance bucket and jumped out to a 14-2 lead. They controlled the rest of the half and took a 54-46 lead into the break with their highest-scoring half of the series.
The second half started well for the Pacers, but turned for the worse.
Roy Hibbert contributed three quick buckets after a quiet first half and the Pacers made a move early in the third with an 11-2 run that included fourth fouls on Rose and Boozer while cutting the deficit to 61-57. They needed to maintain that spark.
But Rose returned after sitting less than three minutes and simply took over the game.
He made three 3-pointers in a row after hitting 5-of-33 to that point in the series. Keith Bogans added two more from the arc as the Bulls blew it open with a 23-8 run to take an 84-65 lead into the fourth quarter.
Emotions started to rise as the bad end to the period was made worse when Josh McRoberts was ejected for a Flagrant Type 2 foul for throwing two high elbows at Noah under the basket. Danny Granger later told reporters that Noah
The Bulls play the winner of the series between the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks currently lead the series 3-2.
