Chicago proved themselves tonight with an upset win over Denver. They came in as heavy underdogs in the major sports lines, as well as most pundits' predictions, but that hardly mattered to coach Bob and his team. "All they hype was 'Denver this; Denver that' coming into the game. It's like we didn't even exist. I think we proved our point." That they did, led by the spectacularp play of their star, Johnson.

"Coach said that all we had to do was go out and play our best and we could win, and we knew he was right," he said later. "So that's what we did, and we showed that we can play with anyone."

Losing coach Bob was disappointed with his team's effort. "I think we started believing our own press," he said. "Everyone was saying we'd come away with the easy win, so we went in expecting it to be handed to us on a silver platter. But you've got to give credit where it's due, and Bob had his team playing as well as they've played all year."

Chicago was led by Johnson (9 points, 16 assists, 2 steals), Petroff (10 points, 8 boards, 1 assists, a block), Joseph (21 points). Denver was led by Phillips (27 points, 15 boards, 2 assists, a steal, a block), Schmidt (26 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, a block), Ferguson (10 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks).

After this victory, Chicago stand at 37-41 and 22-15 at home. They remain at #3 in the Central and stay at #7 overall in the Eastern Conference. With today's loss, Denver are now 44-34. They remain at #2 in the Northwest and stay at #5 overall in the Western Conference.

box score Chicago roster Denver roster