The Chicago Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 115 to 109 in overtime tonight.

Fans dream of the 4 point play when their team is down by 4, with the game dwindling down. Ben Gordon did just that tonight to tie the game and bring it into overtime. Ben Gordon sank a three at the top of the key while being fouled by Eric Gordon. Ben Gordon then nailed the free throw to tie the game. Ben Gordon was big, scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter.

Luol Deng was key in overtime, scoring the Bulls first 4 points. Derrick Rose then scored on a drive to the basket and got an and one. Then the Bulls were treated to a clutch steal by Larry Hughes. The Clippers missed their shots from there on out and the Bulls cruised to victory.

Derrick Rose looks to have hit the rookie wall, as he was terrible tonight. Rose had 16 points on 5-17 shooting and 7 assists. Still, Rose outplayed his counterpart, Baron Davis, who scored 16 points on 6-23 shooting. Davis also had 12 assists in the game.

The Gordon matchup was interesting. Eric Gordon got off to a hot start in the first quarter, outplaying Ben. But the Bulls were able to slow down Eric, keeping him from getting goods shots and forcing him to make boneheaded plays down the stretch. Ben Gordon looked like he was going to have a bad game tonight, but ended up turning it into a really good game, finishing with 22 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and even a block.

Luol Deng was bad for all of regulation, but was great in overtime. Deng finished with 9 points on 3-9 shooting.

Drew Gooden had a big first quarter, scoring 14 of his 18 points in the first. Gooden also had 11 rebounds. Gooden was abused by Zach Randolph, who finished the game with 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Randolph scored in the low post as well as on fadeaway jumpshots.

Andres Nocioni had one of his few good games of the season, scoring 22 points on 8-14 shooting. His shot was falling tonight, and his defense was a little bit better than usual, although his rebounding was poor.

Joakim Noah was productive during his time in the game, finishing with 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Noah struggled guarding Zach Randolph though, and couldn’t keep Camby off the offensive glass.

Marcus Camby put up a monster game. Camby finished with 19 points, 27 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Camby completely dominated the Bulls on the offensive glass and frustrated Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon on their drives to the basket.

Al Thornton had a quiet 20 points for the Clippers.

Tyrus Thomas left the game with a concussion.

The Bulls are now 12-13 after this ugly win over the Clippers. The Bulls will have another shot at reaching the .500 mark when they play Boston on Friday.

From Sam Smith’s blog on Bulls.com:

It goes back to this preseason when the Bulls, Wizards, Nuggets and Clippers were in talks for a massive player deal. Those rarely come to fruition because of so many moving parts, though sources say this one was getting serious before Hughes got hurt and then Kirk Hinrich. I usually don’t pay much attention to these scenarios since GM’s talk all the time and come up with some crazier stuff than my e-mailers. And presumably everything has changed since the Nuggets later dealt for Chauncey Billups and the Clippers for Zach Randolph. I’ve heard different versions of this, but the Bulls supposedly were getting Chris Kaman and Antonio Daniels after everything settled. Who knows how close it ever was. But despite what the Clippers have been saying, they have had long interest in dealing Kaman, now out two weeks. And I’d assume especially now with Randolph playing well with Marcus Camby.

The Bulls should continue to pursue Chris Kaman. Kaman is averaging 13.9 PPG 9.4 RPG 1.9 BPG and 1.9 APG so far this year. I still do not see why the Clippers are intent on trading Kaman, but if they want to be foolish, Paxson should pounce on the opportunity to get a good center.

Paxson should start by trying to trade for Kaman using Hinrich, Nocioni, and the young bigs. But if the Clippers don’t bite at that, Paxson should not hesitate at swapping Luol Deng for Chris Kaman. The Bulls could easily reach a trade involving Deng, despite his BYC status, by using Drew Gooden as the filler. Trades involving Tyrus Thomas as the filler are also possibly, but much harder to use, and involves exploiting a loophole in the CBA involving the minimum salary trade exception. Luol Deng and Tyrus Thomas for Chris Kaman and Brian Skinner would be an example of this.

By swapping Deng for Kaman, we get a better player at a more important position given the construct of our team, while doing no damage to our 2010 plans. If we still are unable to find a taker for Kirk Hinrich or Andres Nocioni by the start of 2009 free agency, we can turn our attention away from 2010 and focus on building through 2009 free agency and leveraging the contract of Larry Hughes.

In this scenario, we would also be able to re-sign Drew Gooden with no concerns of it messing up our 2010 plan. Losing Deng would not be that painful, as Shawn Marion and Ron Artest are likely to be available for the MLE this summer. Creating a starting lineup of Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, Shawn Marion, Drew Gooden, and Chris Kaman would not be too bad of an alternative plan to 2010. We would have competent players at all positions.

Hopefully the Clippers remain intent on trading Chris Kaman and the Bulls get lucky and land him. He would be a great addition for this team.

Victor Bellan of rumorpress.net, a Chicago Bulls insider recently answered some questions from Bulls fans.

Here are the main points from the Q&A:

• The Bulls very likely will make a trade, although closer to the deadline.
• Vinny is playing Hughes for two reasons.  1. He feels Hughes can contribute.  2.  Him and Paxson are afraid benching Hughes could create a distraction for the team.
• The Washington Wizards were mildly interested in Hughes.  The Bulls would love to trade him to Washington.
• The Bulls have shown interest in Al Harrington, Zach Randolph, and Chris Kaman.  The Bulls would love to trade for Kaman, but the Clippers don’t want what the Bulls have to offer.
• Bulls feel their best chance at landing a 2010 free agent is Dwyane Wade.

You can view the entire Q&A at rumorpress.net

Hoops World wrote in their mid-day report that the Bulls are still interested in Zach Randolph, here is what they wrote:

In other news, the Bulls supposedly are still interested in forward Zach Randolph, but reportedly don’t have the right package to offer the Knicks. In such a deal the Knicks want contracts ending by 2009-10. Randolph makes $14.7 million this season. The only players Chicago has that meet the criteria are Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden; Tyrus Thomas, Thabo Sefolosha and Cedric Simmons would all be restricted free agents following 2009-10.

Hughes for Randolph works under the cap; Hughes’ deal ends in 2009-10. He makes $12.9 million this season. Of course, the Knicks are hoping for a bit more value in a trade, preferably someone who can help them until the contract expires.

I can definitely see a Bulls trade being on the horizon. The Bulls earlier today released Roger Powell and Michael Ruffin from the team. Those cuttings put the Bulls’ roster at 13 players and their effective roster at 12 players, given that Larry Hughes will miss the first 6-8 weeks of the season.

If the Bulls and Knicks do go down the Zach Randolph route, the trade I would expect to happen is Kirk Hinrich and Drew Gooden for Zach Randolph.

Trading away Kirk Hinrich would send a strong message from the organization to Ben Gordon that you are our man in the back court. It has become quite clear that Hinrich will never be that shooting guard next to Rose long term.

Drew Gooden, so far in preseason, does not look like that solid scoring power forward that we are looking for. He is basically serving the role of an expiring deal in this trade, because Zach Randolph is also a power forward and would replace him.

For the Knicks, trading Drew Gooden expires at the end of this season. While Kirk Hinrich’s contract is a year longer than Randolph’s, Kirk Hinrich’s contract goes down in value and is worth $8.33 million less than Randolph’s in the 2010 offseason.

When Mike D’Antoni was in the process of interviewing with the Bulls, he showed a lot of excitement towards the possibility of coaching Kirk Hinrich, so Hinrich would likely be welcomed with open arms in New York.

With the Bulls roster being so thin, something definitely seems to be brewing in the Bulls front office.