Coby White accumulated 22 points, twelve of which came in the decisive fourth quarter, as the Chicago Bulls defeated the visiting San Antonio Spurs 114-95 on Thursday. The Bulls were at their best in the final 12 minutes.
The Bulls, who were in third place, had a four-point lead at halftime and a nine-point deficit with nine minutes remaining in the third quarter. However, San Antonio came back to be within 77-70 heading into the final quarter.
With 8:53 remaining, Chicago rallied and extended its lead to 15 on White’s pullup 3-pointer. With that, the Bears more than had enough time to hang on against the Western Conference’s worst-ranked team.
In addition to DeMar DeRozan’s 21 points, the Bulls also received 18 points from Patrick Williams, 16 points from Nikola Vucevic, and 12 points from Andre Drummond, who also provided eight rebounds. Furthermore, DeMar DeRozan scored 21 points for the Bulls.
The Spurs were led by Devin Vassell, who scored 21 points, while Zach Collins and Keldon Johnson each contributed 14 points. Victor Wembanyama made three times out of eight shots from the field, which resulted in him scoring seven points. Currently, San Antonio has been defeated for the third time in a row and has been defeated in 21 of its last 22 matches.
Collins’ layup at the 3:30 mark gave San Antonio a 22-16 lead, which solidified the Spurs’ position as the team that was leading early on. With 33 seconds remaining in the session, Chicago was able to rally and grab a one-point advantage, but it was only for a short amount of time. Dalen Terry made a free throw. At the end of the first twelve minutes of play, San Antonio had a 28-27 lead thanks to two shots from the free throw line that were taken by Collins.
A three-pointer made by DeRozan with 10 minutes and 14 seconds left in the second quarter gave the Bulls a 34-33 advantage, which proceeded to expand throughout the remainder of the period. Despite the fact that Chicago was leading by nine points, the Spurs would not give up and made a jump shot by Vassell with fifty seconds remaining to bring San Antonio to within fifty-two points at the halftime break.
While Vassell led the Spurs in scoring with 11 points, Vucevic led all scorers with 12 points before halftime thanks to his performance. Vassell was the leader of the Spurs. During the first two quarters of the game, Chicago was only successful in making one of its fourteen attempts to make a three-point shot, while the Spurs were only successful five times out of eighteen times from long range.
At the two-minute mark of the third quarter, Vassell made a three-pointer for San Antonio, which tied the score at 55-55. The game continued to be close until an 8-0 run, which was capped off by Drummond’s bank jumper at the 2:41 mark, expanded the Bulls’ advantage to 71-62. Thirty minutes into the game, Chicago held a 77-70 advantage over their opponent.