The Chicago Bulls delivered the fans at the United Center their Big Macs for the second time this season, with a 104-95 win over the Indiana Pacers.

The Bulls took control of the game early, building up a 19 point lead, but Indiana fought back, making it a four point game at the half. But the Bulls pushed back behind the strong play of Derrick Rose, opening up a solid lead, which the Bulls held throughout the second half on their way to victory.

Rose finished the game with 28 points on 11-20 shooting with 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 6 turnovers. The only troublesome part about Rose’s game tonight was the turnovers, but he was excellent in every other aspect of the game. The best part of Rose’s performance was his ability to attack the Pacers defense and draw fouls, allowing him to get 8 free throws in the game.

Rose got some big help from his wings, who all shot over 50% in the game. In the starting lineup, Luol Deng scored 16 points on 6-10 shooting and Kirk Hinrich finished with 10 points on 4-7 shooting, along with 5 assists. Off the bench, John Salmons finished with 17 points on 5-8 shooting. When these three guys score efficiently, like they did against the Pacers, the Bulls are going to put up some points and be tough to beat.

Brad Miller also had a good game off the bench, finishing with 16 points.

For the Pacers, Mike Dunleavy and Solomon Jones had 13 points each in the starting lineup. Earl Watson and Luther Head each had 10 points, and Roy Hibbert poured in 17 points off the bench.

Josh McRoberts had a quick stretch of unstoppability, but he had little effect on the game outside of that stretch, finishing with 9 points on 4-6 shooting.

Tyrus Thomas played well in his second game back from injury, putting up 8 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, and 5 turnovers. Thomas shot the ball poorly and turned it over too much, but his defensive and rebounding impact on the game were huge. The Bulls should probably continue to play better ball now with a healthy Tyrus here.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 12-17 on the season.

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Tags: Brad Miller, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, Earl Watson, Indiana Pacers, John Salmons, Josh McRoberts, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Luther Head, Mike Dunleavy, Roy Hibbert, Solomon Jones, Tyrus Thomas

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under Game Recap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.