Spurs 104, Bulls 96: Manu Ginobili scored 22 points off the bench and Tony Parker added 20 points and nine assists as visiting San Antonio held off Chicago for its seventh straight win.
Kawhi Leonard tallied 16 points and nine rebounds for the Spurs, who maintained their slim lead over Oklahoma City for the best record in the Western Conference. Reserves Marco Belinelli and Patty Mills each added 10 points as San Antonio improved its league-best road record to 24-8.
D.J. Augustin scored 24 points off the bench for the Bulls, who lost for only the fourth time in their last 15 games. Jimmy Butler added 23 points and Joakim Noah contributed 13 points, eight rebounds and seven assists as Chicago fell a game behind Toronto for third place in the East.
San Antonio led 90-66 entering the final period and had the margin back up to 28 with 8:53 remaining when Chicago began to charge back against the Spurs' reserves. The Bulls held San Antonio without a field goal for nearly six minutes and got within 102-94 on a Jimmer Fredette layup with 38 seconds left before San Antonio salted it away.
The Spurs were a blistering 15-for-21 from the field in the first quarter, breaking out to a 38-14 lead behind 16 points from Parker. They had the advantage as large as 32 in the second quarter before settling for a 61-33 lead at the break.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The Spurs improved to 40-9 when scoring at least 100 points while the Bulls allowed an opponent to reach triple digits for only the 14th time in 64 games. … San Antonio improved to 37-1 when leading after three quarters. … The Bulls had won 17 straight games when scoring at least 96 points.
San Antonio | Chicago | |
Manu Ginobili 22 | Scoring | D.J. Augustin 24 |
Tony Parker 9 | Assists | Joakim Noah 7 |
Tim Duncan 9 | Rebounds | Joakim Noah 8 |
Tony Parker 4 | Free Throws Made | D.J. Augustin 8 |
Boris Diaw 3 | Steals | Kirk Hinrich 2 |
Cory Joseph 2 | Blocks | Taj Gibson 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
San Antonio | 104 | 50.6 | 12-21 | 12-15 | 25 | 38 | 3 | 6 | 12 |
Chicago | 96 | 42.7 | 8-18 | 24-28 | 22 | 39 | 5 | 4 | 14 |