Bulls show fight, ride 1st and 3rd quarter blitzes to beat Thunder

After a tumultuous week that featured three straight losses, a frantic search for identity sparked by All-Star shooting guard Jimmy Butler's open questioning of first-year head coach Fred Hoiberg and the revelation that center Joakim Noah will miss two to four weeks with a sprained left shoulder, the Chicago Bulls entered Friday's Christmas Day meeting with the Oklahoma City Thunder with their backs to the ropes and a choice in front of them: come out fighting and regain control, or brace for the kind of knockout punch that could leave a team with championship aspirations reeling.

It looks like the Bulls intend to fight.

Chicago scored the first 11 points of Friday's visit to Oklahoma City and never trailed, doubling up the Thunder in the third quarter and fending off a late comeback attempt to earn an impressive 105-96 win that gives the Bulls a season sweep over Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and company.

The Bulls jumped right on Oklahoma City from the opening tip, scoring on five of their first six possessions, capped by a slick drive-and-dish by Butler to Pau Gasol for a dunk that made it 11-0 before the Thunder had even taken off their warmups.

Chicago played with pace, purpose and passing, with Gasol picking out cutters from the high post for alley-oop finishes over the top of the Oklahoma City defense.

Oklahoma City bounced back from its sluggish start with a 17-8 run that cut the Bulls' early lead to three in the closing seconds of the first quarter. But Butler answered with a ceiling-scraping, rainmaking 35-foot buzzer-beating triple that put the Bulls up 32-26 at the break.

The two teams traded runs in the second quarter, with Chicago rebuilding its lead behind strong play from Butler and running buddy Derrick Rose only to see OKC close the second on a 15-5 run fueled by Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. After heading into halftime up just two points, through, the Bulls separated themselves in the third, once again dominating from the start of the frame with eight straight points to push the lead back to 10.

Rose continued his strong showing, controlling the pace of play on the ball and attacking when opportunities presented themselves, while Butler maintained his hold on the proceedings off the dribble and the duo of Gasol and rookie Bobby Portis helped the Bulls re-establish their dominance on the interior. While the Bulls were generating great looks in the paint in the third quarter, the Thunder just couldn't get anything going; when Durant's shot stopped falling, the OKC offense just dried up, posting only 16 points on 23.8 percent shooting in the frame, as Chicago doubled the Thunder up, 32-16, to take a commanding 86-68 lead into the fourth quarter.

Knowing he needed buckets in a hurry to get back in the battle, Billy Donovan rolled with an offense-heavy lineup for nearly the entirety of the fourth, sending in board-crashing center Enes Kanter and 3-point sharpshooter Anthony Morrow in alongside the star trio of Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka to try to jumpstart the Thunder attack. It nearly worked — a pair of Morrow 3-pointers cut the deficit to eight with 4:47 left in the fourth, and OKC got within six on a Westbrook pull-up with 3:42 remaining — but Chicago kept pushing. Butler attacked to earn free throws that pushed the lead back to eight; Ibaka got whistled for a moving screen on the ensuing Thunder possession; and Rose's penetration drew defensive attention that left Gasol unmarked on the interior, allowing the Spaniard to grab the offensive rebound of Rose's miss for a putback that gave Chicago a 10-point lead with 2:06 left and sealed the deal.

Butler led the way for Chicago with 23 points on 9-for-20 shooting, six rebounds, four assists and four steals in 43 minutes. Gasol (21 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, two blocks) and Gibson (13 points, 10 rebounds, two assists) beasted on the inside, helping the Bulls outscore Oklahoma City in the paint 56-48. Rose needed 18 shots to score his 19 points, but his aggressiveness and playmaking, especially during those key third- and fourth-quarter stretches, helped snap Chicago's three-game losing streak and improve the Bulls to 16-11 on the season.

Durant led all scorers with 29 points on 11-for-21 shooting with nine rebounds and seven assists, and Westbrook added 26 points on 9-for-23 shooting with eight assists, seven rebounds and six steals. They didn't have a whole lot of help, though, ... and that proved to be the difference, as Oklahoma City dropped its first game at Chesapeake Energy Arena in more than a month, and its first home game with Durant in the lineup in nearly two months, to fall to 20-10.