Bulls denied sweep of Pacers, Derrick Rose sprains ankle

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Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose reacts after injuring his ankle during the first half of Game 4 of a first-round NBA basketball series against the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, Saturday, April 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Updated: May 25, 2011 12:43AM

INDIANAPOLIS — What’s the official blood-pressure medicine of the Bulls?

For the fourth consecutive game, the Bulls started with an alarmingly slow pulse. This time, the hole they dug was too deep.

After being flummoxed by three heroic Bulls comebacks, the Indiana Pacers finally held on for an
89-84 victory in Game 4 on Saturday to avoid being swept.

Their brooms still in the closet, the Bulls, who haven’t led at the half in any of the four games, will head home leading the first-round playoff series 3-1. And they will try to correct the mistakes that left them trailing 55-37 early in the third quarter.

‘‘[The Pacers] went after it,’’ Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. ‘‘They fought harder. They got to loose balls. You can’t just outjump against these guys. You have to hit, you have to block out and you have to fight. We have to play a lot tougher.’’

It didn’t help that Derrick Rose sprained his left ankle, rolling it on a drive with a minute left in the first quarter. After scoring 98 points in the first three games, he finished Game 4 with 15 points on 6-for-22 shooting, including 3-for-16 after the injury.

‘‘Of course, when you twist your ankle, it’s gonna slow you down a little bit,’’ Rose said. ‘‘But no excuses. It’s the playoffs. I’ve sprained my ankle a million times. I just wasn’t able to hit shots. They were short. Next time, I have to shoot the ball up and shoot with my legs.’’

In the end, the Bulls shot 38 percent and the Pacers 39 percent. As Thibodeau said, the Pacers seemed to want the game more.

‘‘In the back of my mind,’’ Pacers center Roy Hibbert said, ‘‘I was like, ‘This can’t be my last game of the season. I don’t want to go back [home] to D.C. like this.’ I needed to take it up another notch against an elite team like Chicago.’’

Danny Granger (24 points, 10
rebounds) and Hibbert (16 points, 10 rebounds) gave the Pacers the one-two punch they had been seeking. And both were miffed that Bulls fans occupied at least half the seats in Conseco Fieldhouse.

‘‘It kind of pissed me off, honestly,’’ Granger said. ‘‘Every time we went to the huddle, I said, ‘We’re going to shut the Chicago fans up.’ You can’t just come into our arena and start yelling, ‘Go, Bulls!’ That’s unacceptable.’’

The Bulls knew the Pacers would be a desperate team, but they couldn’t deal with it — especially the Pacers’ physical play.

‘‘It’s taken us out of what we want to do, for sure,’’ guard Kyle Korver said. ‘‘We’re not getting good looks.’’

That was apparent on the Bulls’ last-chance play. Trailing 87-84 with 15.3 seconds left, all they could come up with was a three-pointer from the left corner by forward Carlos Boozer. It came up short.

It was the 10th three-point try of Boozer’s nine-year career. He is now 0-for-3 since 2003-04, when he was 1-for-6 from behind the arc.

‘‘I just happened to be the one that was open in the corner,’’
Boozer said. ‘‘I thought it had a chance. It was a little short.’’

The Bulls couldn’t get the ball to their first, second or third options: Rose, Luol Deng or Korver.

‘‘We didn’t get our first look,’’ Deng said. ‘‘We didn’t get our second look. They kind of denied us.’’

The best option, Rose said, would have been to call a timeout and ‘‘get things together. But we lost the game way before that. Everybody knows that.’’

Instead, the Bulls will try to
draw from the positives of putting together an 18-3 run that pulled them to 85-84 after they trailed
82-66 with five minutes left.

‘‘Too deep,’’ Rose said of the hole the Bulls dug themselves. ‘‘What we do at the end of the game, we have to start off like that. We just have to put them away. Take their confidence, and it should be an easy game after that.’’

At this point, it’s difficult to see anything coming easily against the Pacers.