The San Antonio Spurs rebounded from a poor first quarter to defeat the Chicago Bulls 106-99 at the United Center on Wednesday night to continue their five-game East Coast road trip.
The win is the second straight for San Antonio, who improved to 11-6 on the road. The Spurs played without DeMar DeRozan, who missed time after attending his father’s funeral.
The Spurs were outscored 31-17 in the first quarter and trailed by 23 points in the second quarter while having their lowest-scoring first half of the season.
“We played two great defensive quarters in the second half, spurred on by Patty Mills’ aggressiveness, and it just seemed to infect everybody else,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ”Offensively, we made a few shots, which we did not do in the first half. Jakob had a wonderful game.”
San Antonio was led by Jakob Poeltl’s career-high 20 points and 16 rebounds. Derrick White added 17 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Dejounte Murray, Keldon Johnson and Patty Mills all chipped in 14 points.
The Bulls were led by Zach LaVine’s 29 points and Thaddeus Young added 16 points of this own for Chicago.
The Spurs trailed by 13 points late in the third quarter but used a fourth quarter 12-0 run and a 17-0 run to rally and keep the lead for good.
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The Spurs are now 21-16 on the season and will return to the court on Friday night when they face the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m. in Ohio.