Out of the gate, it looked like the Bulls would at least keep up with the Spurs all night. A one-point deficit after the first quarter turned into a six-point lead at halftime. Then, the Bulls came storming out of the locker room and outscored the defending champions in the third 31-20 to go up by as much as 25. The final drama was extinguished in the waning moments when Nikola Mirotic slammed it home to give the fans free Big Macs.
Derrick Rose, fresh off having his minutes restrictions lifted, wasted no time showing off his aggressiveness and scored 14 of his game-high 22 points in the paint. Despite no Joakim Noah or Mike Dunleavy, all five Bulls starters reached double figures. Yes, even Tony Snell, despite shooting 4-of-11 (0-of-6 from beyond the arc) and making several bad plays, finished with 12. I could go on about how his NBA career will be a short one at this rate, but that's for another post.
Pau Gasol's day started well with the news that he was voted to start on the All-Star team for the first time. He'll play for the East while brother Marc of Memphis will start for the West, making this the first time brothers have been so honored at the same time. Perhaps fueled by this development, he totaled 12 points and 17 rebounds. The double-double was achieved within seconds of the third quarter's beginning.
Jimmy Butler picked up three fouls in the first half, but stayed out of trouble enough in the second to score 17 and make all seven of his free throws. Taj Gibson had 15 and finished one board shy of joining Gasol in the double-double club. Off the bench, Aaron Brooks scored 15, four of which coming on what I believe is the first four-point play I've ever seen in person.
The Bulls needed to let their fans and themselves know how dominant they can be. When you're able to jump out to a big lead against San Antonio and continue to step on the gas, worries are at least temporarily tossed to the side. More importantly, the whole team actually looked interested in playing for the first time in a couple of weeks. Whether Rose's postgame comments after the Cleveland loss or the team meeting the next day helped may never be known, but we learned things are never as black as painted with this club.
The best things the Bulls can do are play to their strengths and show enough effort to put distance between themselves and whoever they're playing. It happened in this game and by the time the Spurs could get a run going, they were in too big a hole. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were pulled so early in the second half, I barely noticed it. But hey, when your team is in the middle of a blowout, that's really all you care about as a fan.
Not all games are going to be this easy. And should the Bulls, knock on wood, meet these Spurs again in the NBA Finals, it will undoubtedly be their toughest test all year. In an 82-game season, you have several blowouts going both ways and this just happened to be a game that didn't showcase the real Spurs. That's why Tom Thibodeau needs to keep his guys on their heels and if anybody is tuning him out like it's being rumored, it needs to stop right now so they don't blow their best chance to win a championship.
This game was the first of a back-to-back, meaning the Bulls will travel Friday to take on the Dallas Mavericks. Dunleavy could finally return, but it always takes much more to beat Dirk Nowitzki and his club. It seems the Bulls never have it easy with them, so hopefully, they conserved enough energy in this win over the Spurs. Even if they don't beat Dallas, let's hope they at least put an effort similar to what we just and what we know they can do.
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