Bulls shooting amiss in 99-94 loss

With every open look and every clank off the rim, the groans grew louder.

The Bulls' marksmanship deserted them Thursday night at United Center. And with that, poof went their eight-game winning streak at the hands of the Magic.

Dwight Howard's 29 points and 18 rebounds powered the wild 99-94 victory, which began a string of six straight home games for the Bulls.

After blowing all of an 18-point lead, the Magic tied the game 91-91 with 2 minutes left on Howard's thunderous alley-oop dunk off a pass from Jameer Nelson. Following a Derrick Rose miss — he shot 6-for-22 — Ryan Anderson buried a 3-pointer for the go-ahead basket after Rose blocked Nelson at the other end.

When Carlos Boozer and Rose missed again on the following possession — the Bulls shot 40.7 percent — Anderson got fouled and pushed the lead to five with two free throws with 45.7 seconds left.

Jason Richardson added 18 points for the Magic, who went 11-for-26 from beyond the arc. The Bulls clanked 17 of 22 3-pointers, including 12 of 13 in the second half. Kyle Korver missed six straight fourth-quarter 3-pointers.

Earlier in the fourth, Carlos Boozer kept the Bulls afloat with eight straight of his 26 points on a night both Luol Deng and Rose struggled from the field. The Magic pulled ahead 87-84 when Hedo Turkoglu made all his free throws after rookie Jimmy Butler — playing for a tired Deng, who went 1-for-9 — got whistled on a questionable call on a 3-pointer.

Meanwhile, Rose finally traveled to the free-throw line on the ensuing possession — after 18 shots and countless drives. He sank both as the game continued to see-saw. The Bulls pulled even with 3:47 remaining when Korver sank a technical foul shot after Turkoglu made contact with official Karl Lane protesting an out-of-bounds call.

Earlier, the Bulls closed the first half in spectacular fashion to trim an 18-point deficit to 57-52. Deng swished a wide-open 3-pointer on a three-shot, hustle possession in which Boozer recovered his shot being blocked by Howard and fed Rose, whose miss was snared by Joakim Noah.

Then, following a Nelson turnover with 2.9 seconds left, Noah fed Rose, who sprinted upcourt and swished a running, 30-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to cap a 10-0 run.

Bench play had awakened the slumbering Bulls, who were playing their fourth game in five nights. First, coach Tom Thibodeau inserted seldom-used rookie Butler, who provided five points and three rebounds in just more than seven minutes. Then Korver scored eight straight points and Taj Gibson hit double figures by halftime.