CHICAGO _ Justin Holiday tried a new look Friday night, braiding his hair and donning a headband.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, they perfected their same losing look.
Despite Holiday sinking five 3-pointers for the second straight game and tying his season-high with 19 points, the Bulls again staged a competitive effort before fading late in a 107-105 loss to the Pacers.
Darren Collison sank a midrange jumper with 17.8 seconds left following a defensive breakdown in which both Zach LaVine and Holiday chased Victor Oladipo, leaving Bojan Bogdanovic, who set the screen, wide open. Bogdanovic swung the ball to Collison, who pump faked Ryan Arcidiacono into the air and calmly knocked down the winner.
Following a timeout, LaVine missed a contested baseline jumper. The rebound caromed out to Holiday, who missed a 3-pointer that would've won the game. That miss wound up in the hands of Antonio Blakeney, who scored a team-high 22 points. But Myles Turner spiked Blakeney's awkward, off-balance desperation shot at the buzzer to preserve the Pacers' come-from-behind victory.
Both Thaddeus Young and Turner rejected short shots from Wendell Carter Jr. late as the Pacers erased an 18-point first-half deficit and seven-point deficit at the start of the fourth to storm all the way back.
"We need to learn how to win games," said LaVine, who ran his streak of 20-point games to nine straight despite battling foul trouble.
The wild game featured a sighting of Robin Lopez, who played four first-half minutes after not playing by coach's decision the previous five games. Carter battled foul trouble throughout to post 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
But it wasn't enough. Oladipo's 25 points led the Pacers.
In arguably their best quarter of the season _ a more complete affair than their 41-point first quarter at the season opener in Philadelphia _ the Bulls didn't turn it over, shot 59.3 percent and led by 15. They also played strong defense to score 14 points off five Pacers turnovers.
Carter picked up right where he left off after scoring a season-high 25 points on Wednesday, dropping nine points in the opening period. To show how well matters progressed, Cristiano Felicio scored seven points in six first-quarter minutes.
The lead swelled to 18 early in the second. But the Pacers stormed back to lead 60-58 at halftime thanks to the eight Bulls turnovers, which were converted into 12 points.
