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LOS ANGELES -- Joakim Noah played the final 6:53 with five fouls. Cheap Jerseys . Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau didnt want to take him out with the Bulls double-digit lead slipping away, and thats just the way the All-Star centre wanted it. Noah finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds, and the Bulls held off the stubborn Los Angeles Lakers 92-86 on Sunday after nearly blowing a 19-point advantage. After picking up his last foul, Noah made a key block against 7-footer Chris Kaman and got a dunk at the other end -- all in a 16-second span. "It was too tight. Either we were going to win it with him, or that was going to be it," Thibodeau said. "At that point, I didnt think we could afford two or three minutes (with Noah on the bench), so we rolled the dice and were fortunate. Were a little short-handed right now -- and the way they spread you out on the perimeter, you need guys that can cover ground." Kirk Hinrich had 19 points and Taj Gibson added 18 for the Bulls, who never trailed against an injury-ravaged Lakers squad missing Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Jordan Farmar, Nick Young, Jodie Meeks and Xavier Henry. Gasol, who had a season-high 19 rebounds the previous time the teams met, missed his fourth straight game because of a groin strain. Kaman scored a season-high 27 points off the bench for the Lakers, who won their previous two games following a 3-19 slide that buried them in the race for a Western Conference playoff spot. The 11-year veterans point total was two off his career high, which came on Feb. 13, 2012, when he was playing for New Orleans against Dallas. "Hes been in the league for a long time, and hes one of the most skilled big men Ive ever seen ever since I was in high school," Gibson said. "He has both left and right-hand hooks, a mid-range game -- and once hes in a rhythm like he was today, its really hard to stop him." Point guard Steve Nash, playing his third game after missing 39 because of a nerve problem in his back, had eight points in 21-plus minutes before departing with 5 minutes left in the third quarter because of irritation in his left leg. The 18-year veteran and two-time MVP, who celebrated his 40th birthday Friday with a team-high 19 points in a victory at Philadelphia, was hit on the same leg he fractured last season. "It was just getting worse lately," Nash said. "But I wanted to play, especially when we are losing. You want to try to fight through it. Ive been through that before and I know where it goes, so I didnt want to risk it. I think it was the smartest decision to come out." Gibson, whose buzzer-beating layup in overtime gave the Bulls a 102-100 victory over the Lakers on Jan. 20 at Chicago, led the Bulls to a 52-46 halftime lead with 16 points. He made his seventh start of the season as Carlos Boozer missed his second straight game with a left calf strain. The Bulls, who finished their trip 3-3, opened with a 10-0 run while the Lakers missed their first six shots -- including an airball by Wesley Johnson on a 3-point try from 27 feet. Chicagos starters outscored Los Angeles starters 73-24. "We wanted to throw the first punch," Noah said. "We started off the game just going to Taj and he set the tone for us in the post." Gibsons reverse layup increased the Bulls margin to 15 before Los Angeles scored the next 12 points to slice the deficit to 42-39 with 5:55 left in the second quarter. But Chicago built its lead back up to 72-53, its biggest of the game, with a 15-5 run capped by Hinrichs 3-pointer with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third. Down by 13 with 6:37 to play, the Lakers narrowed the gap to 88-84 after Steve Blake stole the ball from Hinrich and Kaman fed Johnson for a slam dunk that capped a 13-4 run with 48.3 seconds left. But D.J. Augustin, who had 15 points off the bench, sank four free throws in the final 21 seconds to help seal the victory. The Bulls are 15-5 in games theyve led by at least 15 points. Thursday night, they blew a 16-point lead at Golden State and lost 102-87. "It was very important to close this one out, being the last game of the trip," Hinrich said. "Thats something we have to work on -- keeping our foot on the gas pedal and not relaxing. We didnt do that today, but well definitely take the win." Chicago is 19-20 since star-crossed All-Star Derrick Rose went down with his second major knee injury in three seasons. "The whole time Ive been here weve had some real tough injuries and weve always been at the egde, but we always crawl and fight our way back. Thats our mindset," Gibson said. "Weve got young guys, new guys, and they believe in the same thing. We believe weve got a shot at the playoffs. We believe in each other. And that shows by the way we play." NOTES: The Bulls starters outscored the Lakers starters 73-24. ... The Lakers have used 25 different starting lineups and the Bulls have used 18. ... The Lakers ended the first half with a stellar passing play started by Blake, in which four different players touched the ball on the fast break and Jordan Hill was left standing all alone under the basket for a layup with 0.06 seconds on the clock. Cheap Jerseys From China . Davis set career highs with 40 points and 21 rebounds, and Eric Gordon made two crucial free throws in overtime to lead the Pelicans to a 121-120 overtime victory over the Boston Celtics on Sunday night. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . Grant was fired a day after the Cavs dropped their sixth straight game, an embarrassing home loss to a Los Angeles Lakers team that started with eight players and finished with five.CALGARY -- Bad luck for the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime continued against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. T.J. Brodie scored at 2:26 of the extra session to lead Flames to a 5-4 win over the slumping Blackhawks, whose overtime record fell to 0-6 this season. "Overtimes been a sore spot," said Chicago coach Joel Quenneville, whos baffled by his teams inability to play well in OT. "I think weve got enough assets in there. In overtime, weve got to find a way to make it happen." Brodie picked up a rebound in front of Chicago goalie Corey Crawford before scoring a wraparound goal to emerge as the hero in front of an announced crowd of 19,289 fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome. "Its always nice winning, especially against a team like that," Brodie said. The third-year defenceman gave credit to Flames forward Lee Stempniak and Sean Monahan for setting up his goal. "There was a battle on the red-line and Stempy won the battle and gave a pass to Mony," Brodie explained. "Mony made a good play cutting to the middle and got a shot off. Crawford sort of slid out of the net from the shot. I just tried to wrap it around back out front and it ended up going in." Mikael Backlund scored twice for the Flames (19-27-7), who won three straight games for the first time this season. "There was a lot of emotions out there, a lot of chances back and forth," Backlund said. "These are fun games to play. Im sure the coaches didnt think that, but I enjoyed the game." Matt Stajan had a goal and an assist for Calgary, Lance Bouma also scored and Stempniak set up three goals. Marian Hossa scored twice for the Blackhawks (32-10-13), who have gone 0-2-2 in their previous four games. Patrick Kane and Ben Smith also scored for Chicago. "Theyre a hard-working team so we expected them to work hard," Kane said. "They always seem to give us a tough game in this building. We had to be ready for it. I thought we did a good job fighting back. It was just a few too many mistakes." Neither of the starting goalies played particularly well and both were replaced in net by their respective head coaches. Reto Berra stopped 20-of-24 shots he faced through two periods before Karri Ramo took over in the Calgary net for the final frame and overtime. Ramo made nine saves to pick up the win. Antti Raanta drew the start inn net for Chicago, but was pulled after he stopped just 11-of-15 shots he faced through 1 1/2 periods of play. Cheap NFL Jerseys. Crawford came on in relief and stopped 13 consecutive shots before giving up Brodies OT goal. The Flames held a pair of one-goal leads in the first period before the Blackhawks responded both times to tie up the game 2-2 after 20 minutes of play. Calgary jumped out to a quick start as captain Mark Giordano rang a shot off the post 37 seconds into the game before Backlund scored his 10th goal of the season at 1:13 of the first. Backlund took a pass Stempniak and shook off a check from Chicago defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson before backhanding a shot that snuck through Raantas legs. The Blackhawks evened the score at 5:53 when Kane converted a nice backhand pass from Kris Versteeg from behind the Calgary net. The Flames regained their one-goal lead at 11:34 when Boumas weak wrist shot hit Raanta in the shoulder before bouncing up and over the Chicago goalie and into the net. Once again, the Hawks drew even on a goal by Hossa with 3:25 remaining in the opening frame. Patrick Sharp appeared to score the goal, but his stick hit Hossas, which actually directed the puck into the net behind Berra, who made a great pad save to stop the initial shot taken by Jonathan Toews. David Jones made a nice play to set up Stajan for his ninth goal of the season at 3:21 of the second before Backlund converted a feed from Stempniak for a short-handed marker at 10:25 to put the Flames up 4-2. The Hawks pulled back to within one when Smiths long wrist shot bounced off of Berras catching glove and into the net. Hossa then tied the game at 4-4 when he swatted a rebound past Berra at 17:33 of the second while Chicago was killing off a penalty. The Blackhawks outshot the Flames 9-7 in the third period, in which neither Ramo nor Crawford surrendered any goals. Notes: The Flames are in the midst of a five-game homestand, which equals their season high. They also played five straight games at home from Dec. 23 to Jan. 3 when they went 1-4. a The Flames will also host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday and the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. a It was Backlunds first multi-goal game since Oct. 21, 2010 when he scored both times for Calgary during a 4-2 loss to the Red Wings in Detroit. a With an assist on Backlunds second goal, Giordano extended his point-scoring streak to seven games, a career high. wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys ' ' '