Rose's three ties it at buzzer in Bulls' OT win

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Taj Gibson of the Bulls puts up a first-half shot over the Rockets' Jermaine Taylor on Saturday night at the United Center.

Derrick Rose was standing at his locker surrounded by reporters as he talked about his buzzer-beating heroics in the Bulls' 119-116 overtime victory against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night when Rockets center (and former Bull) Brad Miller walked into the room.

''A-hole ... a-hole ... a-hole,'' Miller whispered (not using the abbreviation) from the back of the pack. All Rose could do was laugh.

Miller's taunts were playful, but they also perfectly set the tone for the game.

If not for Rose's three-pointer at the end of regulation to force overtime -- set up by Miller (20 points off the bench) missing a free throw with 10.7 seconds left -- the Bulls would have suffered a frustrating loss.

Instead, the Bulls (10-8) snapped a two-game losing streak and know they pulled out a game when they weren't at their best -- especially in the third and fourth quarters when they surrendered a combined 65 points and blew a 14-point lead.

When asked if the Bulls stole the game, Rose answered quickly.

''Definitely,'' he said. ''We had them buried, but they're a team where they kept fighting, kept getting to the line. We just have to bury teams when we get up like that.''

Since joining the Bulls 2½ years ago, Rose talked about being the player to take and hit big shots down the stretch. There's no question he's that player now.

''I think that's the first time I celebrated after one of my shots all year,'' he said. ''It just felt good knowing that in those situations I'm capable of knocking down shots like that.''

Rose finished with a game-high 30 points and was 4-for-6 on three-pointers. He also had 11 assists, seven rebounds and a career-high five steals.

Carlos Boozer, finally showing the scoring ability that caused the Bulls to sign him in the offseason, had 25 points (9-for-15 shooting) and nine rebounds in 31 minutes. Joakim Noah had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Luis Scola led the Rockets (7-13) with 27 points and eight rebounds.

After the Bulls led nearly all the way, Houston took its first lead since early in the first quarter when Courtney Lee converted a three-point play on a nice backdoor cut for a 98-97 advantage with 3:39 left. The Rockets' lead grew to 107-102 with less than a half-minute to play.

The game appeared lost, but a couple of tip-ins by Boozer and a missed free throw by Miller with 10.7 seconds left gave the Bulls a chance to tie -- and Rose sent the game into OT with a clutch three at the buzzer.

Rose had five points in the overtime period, and the Bulls finally turned up the heat on the defensive end -- holding Houston scoreless for the final 1½ minutes -- to improve to 2-1 in overtime games this season.

''Each day he shows you more and more,'' Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said of Rose. ''That game there was his will. It looked like we were going nowhere at the end, and he willed that game. The way he's growing now, and he's seeing a lot of different defenses and he's learning how to attack and beat those defenses and get easy opportunities for his teammates. He ran the team very, very well.''