- (Sports Network) - Al Horford scored 27 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, and Mike Bibby scored 22 points as the Atlanta Hawks remained unbeaten with a 113-108 win over the Chicago Bulls. Joe Johnson scored 17 points and had eight rebounds, and Maurice Evans added 17 points off the bench for Atlanta which, at 6-0, is off to its best start since winning the first 11 games of the 1997-98 campaign.

"No one expected this except us," said Bibby. "We were playing good, we were playing together. The only people who can stop us now is ourselves."

No. 1 overall pick Derrick Rose continued to prove his worth, as he led all Bulls scorers with 26 points and ripped down 10 boards. Luol Deng had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Chicago, which has dropped two in a row and four of five.

"Our defense was terrible," said Deng. "We did a poor job picking up guys in transition. We didn't help one another."

Ben Gordon added 19 points for the Bulls, who lost on the day when guard Kirk Hinrich had surgery on his right thumb. Hinrich, who suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb in the third quarter of Friday's win over Phoenix, could be out as long as three months.

Chicago rallied from 13 points down in the third quarter to pull within two early in the fourth, only to see Atlanta pull away. Two Deng free throws cut the Bulls' deficit to 85-83 with 9:59 to play, but Marvin Williams sank two free throws, and Bibby drained consecutive threes to push the Hawks up 93-83 with 8:51 remaining.

The closest the Bulls came the rest of the way was 110-106 on a Gordon jumper with 36 seconds left, but Johnson sank two free throws with 21.7 seconds left. An Aaron Gray putback with 6.9 seconds left made it a four-point game again, but Williams sank one of two free throws to provide the final margin of victory for Atlanta.

"Coming out of camp, I couldn't have scripted it any other way," said Hawks coach Mike Woodson. "It's been nice to be able to continue into the season that way."

Atlanta held a 26-22 lead after the first quarter, and took a three-point edge into halftime. The Hawks pushed their lead to 13 points with an 11-2 run late in the third quarter, and a Johnson free throw posted Atlanta to a 78-65 advantage with 2:43 remaining.

Rose drained a jumper in the final seconds of the quarter, though, cutting the deficit to 84-74 entering the final 12 minutes.

Game Notes

The Hawks played without star forward Josh Smith. who is expected to miss two to four weeks with a high left ankle sprain suffered versus Toronto last week...Thabo Sefolosha scored 13 points off the bench for Chicago...Williams scored 13 points, and Zaza Pachulia had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Hawks...Atlanta has won three of four in the series. Chicago had won the previous 12. This was the Hawks' first win in Chicago since April 9, 2004.



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