Bulls Hand Spurs First Road Loss, NBA Scores

By ESPN

It wasn't that they finally lost a road game and had their shot at a record dashed.

No, what bothered the San Antonio Spurs was the disturbingly slow start.

Dwyane Wade scored 20 points and the Chicago Bulls handed the Spurs their first road loss after a 13-0 start, hanging for a 95-91 victory on Thursday night.

San Antonio fell one win shy of matching the NBA's best road start set by the Golden State Warriors last season. The Spurs cut an 18-point deficit midway through the third quarter to four in the closing minutes, only to come up short.

"Streaks are a good sign when they're positive and they're a bad sign when they're negative, but at the end of the day, it doesn't give you anything else," said Pau Gasol, the former Bull.

He's more concerned that the Spurs keep struggling early in games. It could be San Antonio is still adjusting after a busy offseason that included the retirement of Tim Duncan and the addition of several new faces to complement Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Even so, the Spurs need that to change.

"Our opponents have outplayed us physically and execute-wise in most first halves for most of the season, and somehow we pull it together in the second half and play harder and smarter than we did in the first half," coach Gregg Popovich said. "We got it to four, then some execution mistakes. That's the disappointing part, that we're not a very consistent team and we haven't learned as a group the game is 48 minutes."

Leonard scored 24 for San Antonio. Patty Mills added 16 points, hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers. Gasol had 13 points and 10 rebounds in his first game in Chicago since signing with San Antonio in the summer, but the Spurs lost a road game for the first time since Oklahoma City knocked them out in the Western Conference semifinals last season.

Jimmy Butler scored all of his 13 points for Chicago in the second half. Rajon Rondo added 12 points, nine assists and 10 rebounds, and Chicago picked up the win after dropping three in a row and six of nine.

The Bulls have beaten two of the NBA's best teams in the past week in the Spurs and defending champion Cleveland. But they also lost to Denver, the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas and Detroit during this slump.

Thursday, December 8 Scoreboard

Toronto 124, Minnesota 110

Washington 92, Denver 85

Memphis 88, Portland 86

Philadelphia 99, New Orleans 88

Golden  State 106, Utah 99

Chicago 95,  San Antonio 91

Friday, December 9 Schedule (All Times Central)

Orlando at Charlotte, 6 p.m.

Miami at Cleveland, 6:30 p.m.

Toronto at Boston, 6:30 p.m.

Atlanta at Milwaukee, 7 p.m.

Houston at Oklahoma City, 7 p.m.

Detroit at Minnesota, 7 p.m.

Indiana at Dallas, 7:309 p.m.

Phoenix at Los Angeles Lakers, 9:30 p.m.

New York at Sacramento, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, December 10 Schedule (All Times Central)

Milwaukee at Washington, 6 p.m.

Denver at Orlando, 6 p.m.

Portland at Indiana, 6 p.m.

Charlotte at Cleveland, 6:30 p.m.

Miami at Chicago, 7 p.m.

Golden State at Memphis, 7 p.m.

Dallas at Houston, 7 p.m.

Brooklyn at San Antonio, 7:30 p.m.

Sacramento at Utah, 8 p.m.

New Orleans at Los Angeles Clippers, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, December 11 Schedule (All Times Central)

Philadelphia at Detroit, 5 p.m.

Boston at Oklahoma City, 6 p.m.

Golden State at Minnesota, 6 p.m.

New Orleans at Phoenix, 7:30 p.m.

New York at Los Angeles Lakers, 8:30 p.m.