National Basketball Association
San Antonio 131, Chicago 122
When: 8:30 PM ET, Friday, January 28, 2022
Where: AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas
Officials: #28 Mousa Dagher, #74 Curtis Blair, #68 Jacyn Goble
Attendance: 18354

Dejounte Murray scored 29 points and dished out 12 assists as the San Antonio Spurs took charge in the third quarter and held on to beat the visiting Chicago Bulls 131-122 on Friday.

The Spurs led by seven points after a spirited late third-quarter run and expanded their advantage to 120-110 after a Derrick White layup with 3:32 to play. Chicago never got closer than four points the rest of the way.

San Antonio was able to get the shots it wanted down the stretch while getting big baskets from Murray and Jakob Poeltl.

Keldon Johnson added 23 points for San Antonio while Poeltl amassed 21 points and 11 rebounds, Derrick White scored 14 points, and Doug McDermott, Devin Vassell and Lonnie Walker IV tallied 11 points each in the win.

Former Spur DeMar DeRozan scored 32 points for the Bulls in his first return to the Alamo City after signing with Chicago in the offseason. Zach LaVine added 30 points, with Coby White and Nikola Vucevic hitting for 18 each, and Ayo Dosunmu contributing 10 for the Bulls in the loss.

The game went back and forth in the first quarter with seven lead changes, the last setting the table for a 10-0 Bulls run that gave them a 27-18 advantage at the 4:01 mark of the period. Coby White's third 3-pointer of the quarter with 21.2 seconds to play gave Chicago a 35-29 lead after 12 minutes of play.

The Bulls built their advantage to 10 points early in the second period before San Antonio responded with a 17-6 run. Murray scored the final six points in the spurt to put the Spurs up 46-45, with 6:34 to play in the quarter. But their lead was short-lived, with Chicago sweeping back to a 68-63 advantage at the break as DeRozan scored nine points over the final 4:54 of the half.

DeRozan led all scorers with 17 points in the first half with Coby White adding 15 and Vucevic hitting for 10 for the Bulls. Chicago outshot the Spurs 63.6 percent to 51 percent in the first half, while the rest of the stats were very even.

Johnson paced the Spurs with 12 points while McDermott scored 11 and Murray had 10 points and eight assists over the first two quarters.

-Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Chicago   San Antonio
DeMar DeRozan 32 Scoring Dejounte Murray 29
DeMar DeRozan 8 Assists Dejounte Murray 12
Nikola Vucevic 8 Rebounds Jakob Poeltl 11
Zach LaVine 8 Free Throws Made Derrick White 4
Ayo Dosunmu 2 Steals Dejounte Murray 3
Javonte Green 1 Blocks Jakob Poeltl 1
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Chicago 122 52.3 8-30 22-26 22 37 2 5 6
San Antonio 131 52.6 16-37 15-18 35 44 1 3 7
Upcoming Games
  • San Antonio will play their next game on the road against Phoenix. The Spurs have a W/L % of .316 after a win and .419 after a loss.
  • Chicago will play their next game at home against Portland. The Bulls have a W/L % of .645 after a win and .588 after a loss.