Duncan leads Spurs past slumping Bulls

Tony Parker added 13 points and dished out eight assists for the Spurs, who won for the sixth time in seven games. Brent Barry finished with 14 points off the bench and Matt Bonner chipped in with 10 points and finished 3-for-4 from long distance.

"It was a good game," said Duncan. "It was one of those games we knew we had to win. We knew we would get a better response this game. We still had alot of turnovers, but all in all defensively I though we were pretty solid."

Ben Gordon had 21 points for the struggling Bulls, who lost their third straight contest. Luol Deng tallied 14 points, while Kirk Hinrich netted 12 points for Chicago.

"Tonight the Spurs were a better team," said the Bulls Ben Wallace. "We really need to regroup as a team and play basketball off the first dribble to the last of every game."

The Spurs took a 10-point advantage into the final quarter and put things away early on. San Antonio opened the stanza with a Michael Finley three and a Francisco Elson lay-in to make it 80-65 with 9:17 left.

The Spurs coasted to the finish line from there. Barry’s triple, with 2:41 remaining, gave San Antonio its largest lead, 97-79.

The Bulls never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

The Spurs took a slim 28-27 edge after the opening 12 minutes.

San Antonio then took control with a defensive minded second quarter. The Spurs held the Bulls to just 15 points in the frame and extended their lead to eight points, 50-42, at the half.

San Antonio continued to hold Chicago at arm’s length in the third and took a double-digit edge into the final frame, 75-65.

Game Notes

Chicago is currently 0-3 on a seven-game road swing and are just 1-5 on the road this season. They are scheduled to visit the Lakers on Sunday and Denver on Tuesday before concluding the trip with games against Philadelphia and New York.