Butler’s heroics in the second half seal the victory for Bulls

“Shots went in. And my teammates kept telling me to shoot”.

“Tonight was one of those nights where I made the shots go in”. He’s been a force on the defensive side of the ball as well and his play has certainly caught the attention of head coach Fred Hoiberg.

Raptors coach Dwane Casey wasn’t as overjoyed.

“It was an unbelievable performance by Jimmy”, Hoiberg said. “It still felt like he had control of the game”. “I was mad, but I just came out and was aggressive”.

“We were just talking about (how) we have to build off this”, Butler said. Gasol used the adjectives “dominant”, “outstanding” and “incredible” in succession to summarize the performance. “Just a really, really good individual performance”. “I made a couple of shots”, he said.

Chicago notched a fourth successive win as Butler shot 14 of 19 in the final two quarters after a 1-for-4 start. “He did it on both ends, which to me is more impressive”. “We couldn’t get him stopped”. So it’s hard for him to get rhythm. “Once you’re scoring and get hot, it doesn’t matter what you do from there”.

They scored 113 points from a myriad of sources-the usual output from DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, along with bigger than average totals from Luis Scola and Cory Joseph. Lowry added 10 assists. Forward Bobby Portis added 16 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

The lesson? Don’t give Jimmy Butler a bloody lip! Butler leads the Bulls in scoring with 21.1 points per game, while DeRozan’s strong month of December has him leading the Raptors with 22.9 points per game.

“He’s emotional and is trying his best to be productive and help the team”, Gasol said. “He’s not known just to make 3s”.

But the game was still very much in doubt and the Bulls had to erase a second half double-digit deficit to get a tough road victory. Pau Gasol tops in rebounds with 10.6 and in blocks with 2.2 per game.

Lost in all the Butler hoopla was the news that Derrick Rose would have to undergo an MRI on Monday.

The Raptors responded in the second quarter, shooting 52.3 percent from the floor to open up a 60-48 lead at the half. With the loss, the Derek Fisher led Knicks fall to 15-19 on the season. The Bulls trimmed the lead to four with 3:06 left in the quarter when Butler made two free throws. But, on the other hand, allowing the 24th best offensive team score 115 points is bad.

The Bulls have now won seven straight over the Raptors, including a 104-97 win last Monday in Chicago.

A Jonas Valanciunas dunk with five seconds left had the Raptors _ who are two spots ahead of Chicago in second in the East _ within two points, but DeRozan’s three-point attempt clanged around the hoop and then out, eliciting a collective groan from the fans. It was just one of those nights where you just can’t miss.