Nikola Vucevic poured in a season-high 39 points and Ayo Dosunmu added a season-best 27 points plus a career-best 11 rebounds as the visiting Chicago Bulls defeated the San Antonio Spurs 139-124 on Thursday.
The Bulls led by 11 points heading into the fourth quarter after fending off a tepid San Antonio run late in the third period. The Spurs pared the margin to 130-122 on two Keldon Johnson free throws with 3:18 remaining before Chicago reeled off nine straight points, capped by Vucevic’s banked layup with 1:31 left, to cement the win.
Talen Horton-Tucker scored 13 points for the Bulls, who won their second game in a row. Dalen Terry hit for 12, Matas Buzelis scored 11, and Zach LaVine had 11 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
Johnson logged 28 points off the bench for the Spurs. Devin Vassell had 17 points, Jeremy Sochan amassed 16 points and 14 rebounds and Chris Paul, Stephon Castle and Julian Champagnie scored 12 points apiece. Paul dished out nine assists.
San Antonio played without star center Victor Wembanyama (sore back) and dropped its second straight and its third in the past four outings.
The Bulls owned the first quarter, taking a 36-22 lead behind 11 points from Dosunmu.
Chicago pushed the gap to 20 points on Buzelis’ dunk with 2:43 remaining in the second quarter. Charles Bassey’s floating jumper with 14.9 seconds left brought the Spurs to within 14 before Vucevic’s putback layup in the final second granted the visitors a 73-57 advantage at the break.
Vucevic led the Bulls with 13 points before halftime while Chicago outshot San Antonio 60 percent to 43.1 percent. Johnson paced San Antonio’s first-half scoring with 11 points.
Overall on the night, the Bulls hit 57.8 percent of their field-goal attempts while the Spurs sank 46.3 percent. Chicago had an even wider margin from 3-point range, drilling 45.9 percent (17 of 37) to San Antonio’s 28.6 percent (8 of 28).
