Derrick Rose Leads Chicago Bulls' Stampede Against San Antonio Spurs, 96-89

In a game which featured the past of the San Antonio Spurs versus the present and future of the Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose and his Bulls outlasted Tim Duncan and his Spurs 96-89 in a hard-fought game in San Antonio. 

The game was back and forth, with the Spurs taking an early lead 9-2. But then the Bulls called a timeout and responded with a 13-6 run to pull within one point. From there on out, it was a long series of back-and-forth trading punches with the Bulls slowly gaining ground and taking the lead. 

Through the second quarter, the Bulls outscored the Spurs 20-30 and held an eight-point lead heading into the half, but the Spurs responded in the third quarter and came out fighting back. Tim Duncan started to get things going, and the Spurs climbed back into the lead at the end of the third quarter. 

Then the Bulls bench, on the strength of six straight points by Ronnie Brewer, pulled the Bulls back in front while the starters sat. Then Derrick Rose happened. While the third quarter belonged to Duncan, the fourth belonged to Rose. 

Upon entering into the game with the game tied in the fourth quarter, Rose immediately made a fantastic move splitting three San Antonio defenders to make a layup. George Neal answered with a layup. 

On the Bulls' next possession, he collapsed the defense with his penetration and passed it out to Kyle Korver for a three. 

After both the Bulls and Spurs missed a shot, Rose again collapsed the defense, and this time kicked it out to Luol Deng for a three. Suddenly, the Bulls were up by six. 

Rose would go on to score four more points in the fourth quarter, in all scoring or assisting on 10 of the Bulls last 19 points to give the Bulls the six point win. 

It wasn't Rose's best game of the season, he scored 29 points, but he came up big in "MVP" time. He was attacking the basket and making "big-time plays" like he did during last year's MVP campaign. 

Joakim Noah had a double-double for the Bulls, scoring 10 points and grabbing 13 boards. Deng had 10 points and nine rebounds. C.J. Watson had his best game in a while, going 5-of-8 from the field and scoring 12 points. 

Duncan scored 18 and added 10 for the Spurs, and Neal added 21. Tony Parker had 11 points and nine assists. 

The take home from this game was that the Bulls had a signature win, although it had an asterisk next to it, Manu Ginobili wasn't playing. Even so, the Bulls beat one of the West's best teams in their own house—a house which is one of the hardest in the NBA to win in. 

It was also a win where both Korver and Deng hit some huge shots in the fourth quarter to help the Bulls get the win. While Rose was huge in the fourth quarter, it was good to see players sticking big shots when they had to and Rose not having to carry the team by himself. 

On the not-so-good side, Carlos Boozer sat out the fourth quarter after getting beaten horribly on a transition bucket by Tim Duncan. The main problem was he just got plain outhustled. Taj Gibson played the entire fourth quarter. 

Expect the next two days to be filled with overreaction to Boozer's benching. The thing is coach Tom Thibodeau is doing what he's always done. If you play well you play, if you don't, you don't. He didn't make some permanent decision. Booze still is, still will be and still should be the starter. 

The Bulls extended their NBA-best road record to 15-6, which is also the most road games in the NBA. Overall, they have played 37 games, which is also the most in the NBA. 

They played their first 35 games at a clip of 1.71 days per game. They play their last 29 at a pace of 1.93 per game. That's nearly an extra quarter days rest between games. Additionally, they'll have their games skewed to a home schedule more than a road schedule. Finally, they're healthy. That's the good news. 

The bad news is that they need all that because while they've been playing a lot of games on the road, they have mostly been against bad teams. San Antonio marked the first game of a 12-game stretch where they face 10 opponents with winning records.