Whether it's getting blown out early or faltering in the fourth quarter, the Chicago Bulls keep finding ways to lose.
Chris Bosh had 16 points and 13 rebounds, rookie Jamario Moon matched his career-high with 15 points and the Toronto Raptors pulled away in the fourth to beat Chicago 93-78 Sunday, handing the Bulls their fourth straight loss.
"There's no fun in moral victories,'' said a downcast Kirk Hinrich. "I feel like we played better but we lost the game and we struggled down the stretch again.''
The energetic Moon added nine rebounds, six blocks and three steals.
"He gave us a lot of problems,'' Bulls coach Scott Skiles said.
Starting in place of the injured T.J. Ford (sore left arm), point guard Jose Calderon had 19 points and 14 assists for Toronto.
"Jose is playing fantastic right now,'' Bosh said. "He's moving the ball where he's supposed to and taking good shots. He's just poised and controlled. We need that right now, especially with T.J. being out.''
Luol Deng had 21 points and nine rebounds in his return to Chicago's starting lineup after missing the previous three games with a sore lower back.
Ben Gordon added 17 and Hinrich had 15 for Chicago.
Carlos Delfino had 13 points and eight rebounds for Toronto.
The victory was the 114th for Sam Mitchell as Raptors coach, moving him past Lenny Wilkens for the most wins in team history.
The Raptors led 70-64 after three quarters, but missed their first six shot attempts in the fourth. A pair of jumpers by Chicago's Joe Smith cut the gap to two before a Jason Kapono 3-pointer with 8:06 to go ended Toronto's slump.
Kapono's basket seemed to deflate the Bulls, who didn't make another shot until Deng's 3-pointer with 2:36 to play and the game already out of reach.
"In critical moments, we're a little flat-footed out there,'' Skiles said. "Right now at least, we don't have the thrust of energy that we need at that moment.''
Hinrich said defensive lapses have hurt the Bulls in late-game situations.
"In the past, when we got down to those points in the game we were getting stops,'' Hinrich said. "It's something we haven't been able to do this year, which puts that much more pressure on us to execute at the other end.''
No Chicago player was able to defend Moon, who brought the crowd to its feet by blowing past Ben Wallace for a layup with 5:32 to play, giving Toronto a 75-68 edge.
"Coach had already pointed out to me that when I get the ball on the wing, no one is in front of me,'' Moon said. "He told me the next time I get it he wanted me to take it to the basket strong. When I turned, no one was in front of me so I just went.''
Moon, who said he routinely downs a pair of energy drinks before games, has brought a welcome boost to the Raptors.
"He's done a great job,'' Bosh said. "Every team in the NBA needs somebody like that because sometimes you're flat. When you have a guy who's going to come out and run the floor like that and make some big-time blocked shots, it's going to help us out. That kind of wakes everybody up.''
The Bulls entered play Sunday shooting an NBA-worst 38.6 percent from the field. They were no better against Toronto, finishing the game 30-for-79 (38 percent).
"We've got to execute better and right now we're not doing that,'' Deng said.
Chicago trailed 19-12 midway through the first but erased the deficit with an 11-0 run and outscored Toronto 21-6 over the final 5:10 to go up 33-26 after 12 minutes.
Poor shooting by the Bulls let Toronto back into the game in the second, when Chicago made just three of 19 field goal attempts. An acrobatic put-back by Moon in the last seconds of the half gave the Raptors a 50-44 lead at the break.
Notes: Ford has not played since suffering a stinger in his left arm last Tuesday at Dallas. ... Raptors forward Jorge Garbajosa will be in Baltimore on Monday to have a specialist examine his left ankle and leg. Garbajosa, who suffered a displaced ankle joint and fractured fibula in March, was placed on the inactive list last Tuesday after an MRI showed "unusual'' results.
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dude, unimagineable high-lights. monuow I particularly like the end =P Can you imagine that I recently got my vertical jump high enough to start dunking! I just used the a real training plan over at 50inch vertical[dot]com and made it in just 5 weeks
gicaasdasf23423221 1 year ago
omg u guys think that hes so good hes a bitch he cant play for shit it was a fuckin finger roll if he dunked it that wood be good but he didnt so fuck him
spiderman10694 3 years ago
IT'S A FULL MOOOOOOOOOOOOOON! :D go RAPS go MOON
exer86 4 years ago
ommmmg. im loving mooon
chriistal 4 years ago
Nasty
SupaBaller 4 years ago
we need more PLAYS 4 Jamming MOON. I think this GUY is something SPECIAL. we R very LUCKY Raptors have Jamming MOON....
kandiansnowhite 4 years ago
aww man JAMARIO MOON...i cant believe that finger roll was not number one on the top ten...
tabbaci 4 years ago 2
thanx im a big raptors fan i used to live in toronto but had
to move to france so this is the only i could see them
thug4lifetc 4 years ago