* At the end of regulation, Brook Lopez slammed home a miss by Courtney Lee with 0.1 seconds remaining to tie the game 103-103. The Bulls immediately protested that Lopez had committed offensive basket interference, and camera angles (there was no camera above the backboard, which would have given the best view) were inconclusive as to whether the ball would have touched the rim again before Lopez slammed it in. "They said he caught it off the rim, I wanted them to review it and they said 'No, it was a clean play.' And that was it," Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. "They said there was no doubt in their minds it was off the cylinder."
* The Bulls quickly went ahead by seven points in the first overtime, but the Nets stormed back and were within two points when Derrick Rose drove the lane and Courtney Lee reached in and grabbed Rose's left arm. But no foul was called, Rose lost the ball out of bounds off his knee with 25.2 seconds left, and Lopez tied the game on a pair of foul shots with 12.8 seconds remaining before Rose missed an 18-foot fadeaway at the buzzer to send the game to a second overtime. "They're the referees. If it was up to me, they had to see the foul. But it wasn't a foul, they called it out of bounds and that was that," Rose said. "I definitely did [feel contact], but it's not my decision to make that call. It's up to the refs."
* Rose, who missed four of his eight free throw attempts in the fourth quarter, was assessed a flagrant foul with 9:28 left in the fourth quarter for raising his elbow while trying to fight through a pick set by Kris Humphries. "I didn't really get a good explanation, but it looked like Derrick was just trying to fight over a screen," Del Negro said. The Nets turned it into a four-point possession to go ahead by nine, eventually getting their lead up to 11 before Chicago came back from a 10-point deficit in the final 4 1/2 minutes of regulation.

There have been times when the Chicago Bulls' management and coach Vinny Del Negro haven't appeared to be on the same page, and that was never more evident than Friday night in New Jersey.

And if Del Negro is let go after the season, as many expect, Friday night's confusion over how long to play Joakim Noah in a crucial game against the Nets will be discussed -- especially if the Bulls' 127-116 double-overtime loss to the Nets costs Chicago a playoff berth.

Noah has been battling plantar fasciitis much of the season and was on a 35-minute limit. Del Negro said he played Noah just 12 seconds in the OT periods because he was at his time limit.

"He's at a 35-minute limit," Del Negro said. "I think he was at 35:50 or somewhere in there. I had to get him out of the game, and that's what I needed to do."

But after the game, Bulls general manager Gar Forman let reporters know that assistant coach Lindsey Hunter asked Forman during the game whether Noah could continue.

Forman called Bulls executive vice president John Paxson, who gave Forman the OK to continue to use Noah.

But Del Negro stuck close to the time limit.

There is a possibility that the signals may have gotten crossed, or Del Negro simply wanted to stick to the minutes limit after taking some criticism earlier in the season for playing Noah 27 minutes during a game in late February, after saying that he would play only 10 or 12 that night. Noah missed the next 10 games.

This may be the worst possible time for a controversy like this to unfold. The Bulls face a must-win game against the Toronto Raptors Sunday night for the final playoff spot in the East. Del Negro is expected to address the media after the Bulls' shootaround Saturday afternoon.