Jimmy Butler (No.21) of the Chicago Bulls handles the ball against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday. Photo: CFP

Jimmy Butler scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds and the Chicago Bulls held off a late rally to beat Indiana 92-90 on Monday for their seventh consecutive NBA victory.

Spanish star Pau Gasol added 20 points while Derrick Rose contributed 17 for the visiting Bulls, who improved to 22-9, two games behind Toronto for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls nearly squandered a 21-point lead with a sluggish fourth quarter in which they were outscored 25-11.

A three-point play by Chicago's Mike Dunleavy, who pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds, put the Bulls ahead 75-54 late in the third quarter, but Chicago missed an unprecedented 17 shots in a row ­until Gasol broke the futility streak with a ­turnaround jumper with 3:27 remaining in the fourth quarter.

While the Bulls went silent, the Pacers scored 20 points in a row at one stretch, with Lavoy Allen's layup midway into the final period putting Indiana in front and Luis Scola's basket putting the Pacers ahead 86-83.

Butler sank a three-pointer with just over a minute remaining to put the Bulls back on top and C.J. Watson missed a baseline three-pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game for Indiana.

"Derrick [Rose] is always on me to shoot and to shoot threes and be aggressive," Butler said. "I'm confident in my game, so I feel like I have to step up and take and make shots late."

Chris Copeland came off the bench to lead Indiana's six double-figure scorers with 17 points, netting 13 of them in the fourth quarter.

"It's a different thing, executing in the final four minutes of a game than the first 44 minutes of the game," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.

"We had some poor possession on the offensive end. We were getting some stops, we just fell short."

The Pacers slid to 11-21, 11.5 games ­behind the pacesetting Bulls in the Central Division.

Elsewhere, the Orlando Magic spoiled Chris Bosh's return from injury, defeating the Miami Heat 102-101.

Victor Oladipo hit a tying layup, and on Orlando's next possession, hit one of two free throws with 6.5 seconds left to give the Magic the win.

Dwyane Wade, who scored 15 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, missed a ­fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to hand Orlando the win. Bosh added 20 points and seven rebounds in his return to the Heat after missing eight games with a strained left calf.