Spurs overcome terrible start to beat Bulls, get 10th straight win

The Spurs’ win streak has reached 10 games. Despite looking lackadaisical and digging a hole for themselves early in their visit to Chicago, they managed to mount a second-half comeback to beat the Bulls 124-119.

It’s hard to predict when a trap game is coming, but when the Bulls, losers of seven straight heading into the matchup, made the Spurs, winners of nine in a row, look helpless in the first half, it seemed like Wednesday’s bout was going to be one of them. The NBA has a way of humbling even the teams that are steamrolling opponents because on any given night, the tables can turn. Early on, the play of De’Aaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama was enough to keep up with a shockingly hot Chicago team that simply couldn’t miss, but as the minutes passed, and especially when the bench checked in, San Antonio found itself looking at a mounting deficit and not a lot of answers on how to reduce it.

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There were a lot of reasons for the struggles in a first half in which the Silver and Black gave up 70 points. The Bulls’ five-out look, with Jalen Smith at center, prevented Wemby from being the defensive presence he normally is at the rim. Some questionable lineups from Mitch Johnson predictably struggled on both ends, with the ones featuring Luke Kornet really floundering, as the big man couldn’t make an impact in any area. Fox and Wembanyama did well, but the offense as a whole featured either a lot of hesitation or guys forcing the issue and trying to score one-on-one instead of making a terrible Chicago defense move. It was the perfect storm of poor play from the Spurs and surprisingly good minutes from their opponent.

Trap games will happen, and they normally don’t mean much, so when the Silver and Black were down 22 in the second quarter, it was reasonable to assume their streak might end sooner than it should have, and that was fine. As they trimmed the Bulls’ lead to 14 heading into the break, a comeback appeared possible, but it seemed like it would require adjustments in strategy and attitude that, after such an underwhelming start, didn’t look all that likely. Then, as the second half started, the…

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Publish date : 2026-11-12 04:43:00

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