Bulls beat Pacers for seventh consecutive NBA victory

Jimmy Butler scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds and the Chicago Bulls held off a late rally to beat Indiana 92-90 for their seventh consecutive NBA victory.

Spanish star Pau Gasol added 20 points while Derrick Rose contributed 17 on Monday despite 5-of-20 shooting for the visiting Bulls, who improved to 22-9, two games behind Toronto for the best record in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls nearly squandered a 21point lead with a sluggish fourth quarter in which they were outscored 25-11.

A 3-point play by Chicago s Mike Dunleavy, who pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds, put the Bulls ahead 75-54 late in the third quarter, but Chicago missed an unprecedented 17 shots in a row until Gasol broke the futility streak with a turnaround jumper with 3:27 remaining in the fourth quarter.

While the Bulls went silent, the Pacers scored 20 points in a row at one stretch, with Lavoy Allen s layup midway into the final period putting Indiana in front and Luis Scola s basket putting the Pacers ahead 86-83. Butler sank a 3-pointer with just over a minute remaining to put the Bulls back on top and C.J. Watson missed a baseline 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game for Indiana. Chris Copeland came off the bench to lead Indiana s six double-figure scorers with 17 points, netting 13 of them in the fourth quarter. The Pacers slid to 11-21, 11 1/2 games behind the pace-setting Bulls in the Central division.