Bulls beat Nets for eighth straight win

NEWARK, NJ (AP):When the game got tight in the fourth quarter, Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls turned up their defensive pressure. And the streaking New Jersey Nets just couldn't keep up.

Rose scored 21 points and the Bulls extended their longest winning streak in six years to eight games by holding the Nets to a season-low point total in an 84-73 victory on Thursday night.

"That's what we've been doing the whole year, playing defence," said Rose, who came up with a big steal and a layup in the closing minutes. "If our offence isn't going, and that rarely happens, we rely on our defence. That's what we did tonight, make it tough on them. At first, they were getting everything they wanted. Then we just closed down the paint and rebounded the ball."

Chicago, which came into the game with the NBA's second-best defence, allowing an average of 91 points, held the Nets to 35 per cent shooting (29 of 83), including a three-for-19 night from three-point range.

hounded

Rose also hounded Deron Williams on defence. Williams had been the catalyst of New Jersey's five-game winning streak, but he only managed five points on one-of-12 shooting to go along with 11 assists.

Williams has battled a wrist injury since being traded from Utah to New Jersey before the trading deadline and he admitted it bothered him. But he said new coach Tom Thibodeau has turned the Bulls into a great defensive team.

"We could have played a lot better and shot a lot better, 35 per cent from the field is tough to win," Williams said. "But they're a good defensive team. That's what they pride themselves on."

The Bulls (49-18) also are resilient. They blew a 14-point third-quarter lead before turning away the Nets after they tied it three times in the final 5:50.

Chicago's eight-game winning streak is their longest since they won nine in a row between mid-March and early April 2005. This win gave the Bulls a half-game lead over idle Boston Celtics in the race for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

"We know we still have a long way to go," said Luol Deng, who scored 19 points, including a go-ahead jumper with 3:58 to play. "We've got a great team. We've got guys who come off the bench and do a good job of carrying us. We're a deep team and we just have to keep on playing."

Kyle Korver had seven of his 12 points in the final quarter and rookie reserve Omer Asik had 11 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.

Brook Lopez scored 22 points for New Jersey and Kris Humphries added 13 points and 16 rebounds.

"We just couldn't score points tonight," Humphries said. "You look at the stat sheet and we shot in the 30s. We held them to a good amount of points and we just needed to turn it up offensively, but we weren't able to do that."

Knicks 120, Grizzlies 99

In New York, Toney Douglas tied a franchise record by making nine of the Knicks' franchise-record 20 three-pointers, scoring 29 points in a 120-99 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night that snapped a three-game losing streak.

Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points and Chauncey Billups added 18 for the Knicks, who were 20 of 36 (55.6 per cent) from behind the arc and moved back ahead of Philadelphia into sole possession of sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

Mike Conley scored 16 points for the Grizzlies, whose lead was sliced to one game over Utah for the final playoff spot in the West.