DETROIT, (Reuters) – Ben Gordon’s tie-breaking lay-up with 14 seconds left gave the Chicago Bulls a 91-88 road win over the Detroit Pistons, lifting the visitors into sixth place in the Eastern Conference on Monday.
The victory helped the Bulls (41-40) leapfrog the idle Philadelphia 76ers (40-40) with two days left in the NBA regular season.
“I’m really proud of the way we played,” Gordon told reporters. “We showed a lot of resilience…Our goal was to try to improve our seed as much as we could.”
Detroit (39-42) remained in eighth place and will meet conference leader Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs.
Gordon’s field goal gave Chicago a 90-88 lead and Derrick Rose added a free throw with two seconds to play to earn the Bulls their fifth successive victory.
Chicago trailed 75-69 after three quarters but outscored Detroit 22-13 in the fourth, including six consecutive points to end the game.
Rose tied the score at 88-88 with a lay-up and a free throw with 42 seconds remaining.
“It was a huge play,” Rose said. “At that time, I was just trying to win. If that’s getting my teammates open, scoring, whatever it takes to do, I’ll do.”
Gordon followed with the go-ahead basket as the Pistons were held scoreless after leading 88-85 with 2:43 to play.
“They switched a big (man) on me,” Gordon said of his lay-up. “I didn’t want to settle for a jumper. I wanted to attack the rim.”
Rose paced the Bulls with 24 points and Gordon had 19 while Richard Hamilton topped Detroit’s scorers with 25 points and Tayshaun Prince added 19.
Chicago completes its regular season at home against Toronto on Wednesday.