Duos Do It

Before Monday's game with the San Antonio Spurs, the Bulls learned Mike Dunleavy suffered a setback while rehabbing his injured back and will have to stay off the court for two weeks.  It almost seemed like a bad omen.  When they couldn't score from the field for the entire last half of the fourth quarter, nightmares were on the brink of reality.  Fortunately, the Spurs couldn't score when it mattered either and the Bulls won 92-89.

The Bulls scored just 17 first-quarter points before bouncing back to take a one-point lead at halftime.  They were about to pull away in the third, but Kawhi Leonard poured in six of his game-high 25 points consecutively to give the Spurs the lead.  From there, the teams traded decent-sized leads before it came down to the final possession.  Neither club had been getting much of anything offensively down the stretch and the Spurs, who had the ball last, proved it by missing a pair of tough shots from beyond the arc in an vain effort to tie the game.

Notice the headline mentions duos.  It's because without them, we'd be talking about a different result.  25 points came from the conventional and tempo-dictating duo of Jimmy Butler (14) and Derrick Rose (11).  A more unconventional one came thanks to 23 points by starter Tony Snell (11) and reserve Doug McDermott (12).

Pau Gasol led the Bulls with 18 points and 13 rebounds apiece.  While he continues to get eaten alive and pass on opportunities he should take, he turned into the player we know and love late, dominating around the rim.  Joakim Noah looked like the player of old with an unusual, yet effective line:  eight points, 11 rebounds and a team-high seven assists.  If he's still uncomfortable with his knee, it would be nice to see him deal with it like this nightly.

There's no question the Spurs move more smoothly and don't need as much effort as the Bulls to score.  Even with the usual suspects getting older, players like Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge have slowly made the team theirs so that group will continue to be a perennial contender when the Big 3 move on.  It's all part of the magic that is Gregg Popovich's system.

But with all that considered, the Bulls had some productive pairs in this game that would do them a great service going forward.  Rose and Butler need to continue building off each other so that they can hold their rightful place as the one consistent duo.  Others should form on a night-to-night basis to keep their strategy unpredictable.  That might be tough to pull off if you don't know who's going to do well together at tipoff, but it's sure nice to think about.

Check off another quality opponent the Bulls were able to defeat at home.  As we know however, they tend to have letdown games immediately after these types of victories.  Hopefully, that won't be the case Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets.  Just once, it'd be nice to see them break such a pattern and show themselves to be the consistent winners they're built to be.