Boozer lifts Bulls past Cavs

Associated Press

CHICAGO

Carlos Boozer scored 19 points and the short-handed Chicago Bulls snapped a four-game losing streak with a 100-84 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night.

D.J. Augustin scored 18, Tony Snell came on strong in the second half to finish with 17 points, and Chicago prevailed after matching its longest slide in four years under coach Tom Thibodeau.

Boozer and Augustin both got off to strong starts as the Bulls built a 17-point halftime lead, and Chicago withstood several pushes down the stretch to come away with the win after dropping 13 of 16.

The Bulls shot nearly 54 percent overall and were 10 of 15 on 3-pointers against a weak defense.

Boozer hit 8 of 14 shots. Augustin converted 4 of 6 3-pointers and added 10 assists.

Snell nailed all but one of his five 3s in the second half.

Taj Gibson scored 15 points. Joakim Noah grabbed 18 rebounds, and Chicago got a reprieve from the losing despite all its injuries.

Besides Derrick Rose, the Bulls were also missing the injured Luol Deng (sore left Achilles), Jimmy Butler (sprained right ankle) and Kirk Hinrich (back). But they still had enough to beat Cleveland.

Andrew Bynum had 19 points for the Cavaliers, but Kyrie Irving had a rough night.

He finished with 14 points on 5-of-16 shooting after fighting through an illness to score 39 in Friday’s overtime win over Milwaukee, and the Cavaliers lost for the third time in four games.

It didn’t help that they were missing second-leading scorer Dion Waiters, who sat out his second straight game because of a sore right wrist.

The Bulls saw a 19-point lead early in the third shrink to 68-61 late in the quarter.