The San Antonio Spurs cane into The United Center last night having won all 13 of their road games this season. The Chicago Bulls where on a 3 game losing streak coming into the game. Of course that means that the Bulls won the game 95-91 because that’s how things go; I guess.
The score was tied three different times in the 1st quarter and the biggest lead any team built was when the Bulls took a 7 point lead 19-12 after Doug McDermott made a lay up with 2:53 left in the quarter. It was a relatively low scoring 1st quarter, but the Bulls ended it with a 21-17 advantage.
San Antonio cut the leas to 2 points a couple of times early in the 2nd quarter, but the Bulls were able to pull away as the Spurs could manage just 15 points in the quarter. Dwayne Wade hit a 3-pointer with .07 seconds left in the quarter to give the Bulls a 45-32 lead at halftime.
The Bulls where able to get the lead to 15 points before the Spurs started to make up a little ground. San Antonio outscored the Bulls 31 to 27 in the 3rd quarter and ended the quarter on a 11-2 run. The 3rd quarter ended with the Bulls up 9 points 72-63.
The first basket of the 4th quarter was a 3-pointer by Patty Mills to get the Spurs to within 6 points, but that’s as close as they would get. San Antonio did manage to outscore the Bulls again in the 4th quarter 28 to 23, but that wasn’t enough to over come there slow first half and the Bulls ended up with a 95-91 win.
Dwayne Wade led the Bulls in scoring with 20 points. Jimmy Butler was just 4 for 14 from the field while scoring 13 points. Taj Gibson, Robin Lopez and Rajon Rondo all scored 12 points. Rondo just missed a triple-double as he tied for the game high with 10 rebounds and handed out a game high 9 assists.
Kawhi Leonard was the Spurs and the games leading scorer with 24 points. Patty Mils came off the Spurs bench and hit 4 of the 6 3-point sots he took on his way to 16 points. In his return to Chicago Pau Gasol scored 13 points and tied for the game high with 10 rebounds. LaMarcus Aldridge also added 10 points for San Antonio.
The win put the Bulls two games over .500 at 12-10. Chicago gets a day off before they host the 7-15 Miami Heat Saturday night. The loss dropped the Spurs to 18-5 on the season and ended there short three game road trip. San Antonio also returns top action Saturday night as they head home to face the 6-15 Brooklyn Nets.
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