John Salmons scored 27 points, Joakim Noah added a career-high 21 points and had 16 rebounds, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Charlotte Bobcats 93-90 on Saturday night for their third straight win.

The Bulls had a 16-0 run in the third and fourth quarters that turned a nine-point deficit into a seven-point lead at 77-70. They hung on despite some shaky foul shooting, with Charlotte's Flip Murray missing two 3-pointers in the closing seconds.

Boris Diaw led Charlotte with 20 points.

With Chicago up 92-87 with a minute left, the Bulls' Luol Deng missed two free throws, and the Bobcats' Tyson Chandler converted two to make it 92-90 with 21 seconds left. Salmons had a chance to make it a four-point game, but made just one of two free throws with 19.8 seconds left. However, the Bobcats couldn't take advantage.

After a timeout, Murray missed a 3 from the top of the key but had a chance to redeem himself after Diaw grabbed the rebound. Instead, the second one hit the rim and a sprawled out Gerald Wallace knocked the ball out of bounds along the sideline with 3.3 seconds left, giving the Bulls the victory.

Salmons hit 9 of 16 shots, including two 3-pointers. Noah, meanwhile, reached double figures in rebounds for the fifth time while registering his third double-double this season for the short-handed Bulls.

Chicago has just 10 healthy players now that Tyrus Thomas is expected to miss four to six weeks with a broken left forearm. He had surgery Saturday after injuring it a day earlier in a weight-training session.

Even so, the Bulls had enough to get by on Saturday.

They got 14 points from Deng after a slow start and 13 from Derrick Rose. Kirk Hinrich scored six of his nine during the go-ahead run, and the Bulls won despite going 13 for 22 at the foul line. Continued...