CHICAGO (Ticker) -- For Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls, things turned around quickly in the fourth quarter.
Rose rolled in the go-ahead shot with 32 seconds left as the Chicago Bulls handed the Houston Rockets their first loss since Tracy McGrady went down, 105-102, on Saturday.
Rose had 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Bulls, who outscored the Rockets, 34-14, in the fourth.
"The fourth quarter he really got it going," Chicago coach Vinny Del Negro said. "He got that little floater of his going and he pulled us out of it. He has been fantastic all year."
"The fourth quarter we didn't score, and we did not stop them," Houston coach Rick Adelman said. "We got very non-aggressive. I think they scored on eight or nine straight possessions, so you have to look at both ends of the floor."
Tyrus Thomas had 19 points and nine rebounds, Joakim Noah added 10 and 15 and Gordon scored 16 points for Chicago, which saw forwards Luol Deng (right leg) and Tim Thomas (left knee) suffer injuries. Deng finished with six points while Thomas scored 19.
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Luol might be out for the season -
Rose scored 16 of his team-high 22 points and Gordon added 11 of his 15 in the fourth quarter as the pair accounted for all but one of the Bulls' points in a 23-3 run in the last six minutes.
''We imposed our will on them,'' Gordon said. ''It was fun. We kind of caught them by surprise and pounced on them.''
The win was tempered by the likely loss of Luol Deng for the rest of the season. Deng left the game in the second quarter with what X-rays showed to be a stress fracture of his right tibia. Deng had been playing the last few weeks with what he thought was a bad bruise.
Two quick thoughts -
(1) Good thing we have Salmons, or Noc would be starting in place of Deng right now.
(2) Hopefully now even VDN will realize that he shouldn't bench D-Rose in the 4th.
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