It was a strange day all around for the Bulls, from the sudden flu that benched Tyrus Thomas to their stunningly bad start in the game with the Milwaukee Bucks to the remarkable finish that staved off an embarrassing loss.

In the end, the Bulls managed an 83-81 comeback victory Tuesday night at the United Center led by one player (Luol Deng) who shifted over to Thomas' position during the rally and another (Jannero Pargo) who wasn't supposed to play because of a back injury.

''It was a fortunate win, to be honest with you,'' coach Vinny Del Negro said. ''We didn't play well at all in the first half, and in the second half, I don't think we played great, but we gutted it out and we found a way to win, which is great.''

Deng finished with 24 points and 20 rebounds (the team's first 20-20 game since Marcus Fizer in 2004), while Pargo -- who didn't play in the first half -- scored 10 points in just over 14 minutes.

''Throughout my career, I have a knack for coming in and bringing energy,'' said Pargo, who said his back didn't tighten up like it did Sunday in Miami.

''We just came out with more energy,'' Deng said of the second-half comeback. ''They started the game with more energy. In the second half, we had a lot more energy and I think Pargo came in the game and gave us a spark.''

The Bucks (1-2) were led by rookie Brandon Jennings, who had a game-high 25 points in his first matchup with Derrick Rose (16 points, five assists) since both were in high school in 2007.

According to the Bulls, Thomas was sent home by trainer Fred Tedeschi shortly after he arrived at the Berto Center center Tuesday morning for the shootaround.

If nothing else, the illness came at an inopportune time for Thomas because it was two days after he didn't play at all in the fourth quarter of a game at Miami, a day after he reportedly objected to criticism from Del Negro during a film session and hours after the deadline passed for him to get a contract extension.

It appears Thomas is legitimately sick -- he was examined Tuesday afternoon by a team physician -- but the timing raised suspicions that it might be a case of the ''blue flu.''

Thomas entered this season with high expectations, but has gotten off to a pedestrian start. He is averaging nine points and 6.7 rebounds in 23.7 minutes. As a starter, he, no doubt, expected to play more, but his minutes are down because he's spent virtually all of the fourth quarters on the bench.

Before the game, Del Negro was asked if he was unhappy with Thomas' play so far.

''I'm unhappy with the play of our team,'' he said. ''I'm not gonna talk about guys individually like that, but everyone needs to pick it up a little bit.''

When asked if Thomas has expressed any frustration with his playing time, Del Negro said: ''I haven't seen Tyrus. He's sick; I haven't seen him all day. Next time I see him, if something's on his mind, he knows where to find me and we'll talk.

''But he just needs to get healthy right now and we have to focus on tonight's game.''

Focus wasn't a Bulls strong point early in the game. They were downright dreadful offensively in the first half, scoring 29 points on 10-for-37 (27 percent) shooting. Worse, they committed 12 first-half turnovers and were getting almost no offensive production from John Salmons (four points on 2-for-9 shooting) and Kirk Hinrich (two points, 1-for-6).

It seemed like things would remain the same in the third quarter as the Bulls continued to struggle to put the ball in the basket. The Bucks, who led by 14 at halftime, stretched their advantage to 56-38 midway through the third quarter.

But then Pargo entered the game and the Bulls suddenly started clicking offensively. The Bulls produced a 12-0 run to make it 56-50 with three minutes left in the quarter. The deficit was down to 60-56 entering the fourth quarter.

Brad Miller tied it at 66 with a three-pointer with 8:25 remaining. A couple of minutes later, Pargo hit a three to give the Bulls a 71-68 lead -- their first lead of the game.

The Bulls led by as many as seven points down the stretch, but needed a pair of defensive stops in the final 20 seconds -- including a Rose block of a Jennings 12-footer -- to hold on for the win.

THE RECAP

Milwaukee 25 18 17 21--81

BULLS 13 16 27 27--83

Bucks min fg-a ft-a o-t a pf pts

Delfino 30:50 3-9 1-1 0-6 4 1 8

Warrick 33:35 5-15 1-2 5-10 2 2 11

Bogut 38:00 8-14 0-1 3-13 2 6 16

Jennings 37:51 10-23 3-4 0-1 4 1 25

Bell 34:11 5-11 0-0 0-5 3 4 11

Mbh a Mte 26:53 2-6 0-0 0-1 2 2 4

Gadzuric 12:55 1-2 0-0 2-5 1 1 2

Ridnour 9:49 2-4 0-2 0-1 2 2 4

Ilyasova 7:20 0-3 0-0 0-1 0 3 0

Meeks 2:24 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

Ukic 6:12 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Totals 240 36-91 5-10 10-44 20 23 81

Percentages: FG .396, FT .500. 3-Point Goals: 4-20, .200 (Jennings 2-5, Bell 1-4, Delfino 1-4, Ilyasova 0-1, Meeks 0-1, Warrick 0-1, Mbah a Moute 0-2, Ukic 0-2). Team Rebounds: 8. Team Turnovers: 12 (7 PTS). Blocked Shots: 5 (Bogut 3, Gadzuric, Warrick). Turnovers: 11 (Bogut 2, Delfino 2, Jennings 2, Ridnour 2, Bell, Gadzuric, Mbah a Moute). Steals: 8 (Jennings 2, Bell, Bogut, Delfino, Ilyasova, Mbah a Moute, Warrick).

BULLS min fg-a ft-a o-t a pf pts

Deng 42:21 7-16 9-11 7-20 0 2 24

Gibson 20:35 2-4 1-4 3-6 0 3 5

Noah 28:59 1-4 2-4 0-12 2 2 4

Rose 28:50 6-12 4-4 1-2 5 0 16

Salmons 42:00 3-15 0-0 1-3 2 2 7

Hinrich 32:46 2-9 0-0 0-2 4 5 4

Miller 30:07 4-9 4-8 2-7 4 3 13

Pargo 14:22 4-5 0-0 0-1 1 1 10

Totals 240 29-74 20-31 14-53 18 18 83

Percentages: FG .392, FT .645. 3-Point Goals: 5-11, .455 (Pargo 2-3, Miller 1-1, Deng 1-2, Salmons 1-3, Hinrich 0-2). Team Rebounds: 11. Team Turnovers: 19 (23 PTS). Blocked Shots: 12 (Noah 5, Deng 2, Salmons 2, Gibson, Miller, Rose). Turnovers: 18 (Rose 5, Salmons 4, Deng 2, Gibson 2, Hinrich 2, Miller 2, Noah). Steals: 7 (Hinrich 2, Salmons 2, Gibson, Noah, Pargo).

Officials--Greg Willard, Tommy Nunez, Sean Corbin. A--19,789. T--2:17.