Bulls 92, Spurs 89

He dropped his season field goal percentage to a career-low 41.9 – that shatters his previous low of 46.6. Bulls reserve Joakim Noah had a standout game scoring eight points, 11 rebounds, and seven big assists.

The Spurs had their opportunities on Monday night, but couldn’t make them count, finishing 1 of 7 in the last four minutes of a close game, and falling to the Chicago Bulls, 92-89 at United Center.

MIAMI – Avery Bradley scored 25 points to lead Boston over Miami. During the Bulls own long FG drought they only allowed 9 points and 16 in the entire 4th, so that’ll help. Butler displayed rock solid defense on Leonard to draw the missed shot, followed up by an airball from Parker with seconds remaining to give Chicago the emphatic victory. That enabled the Spurs to shoot ahead 67-62 before a Butler steal and dunk against Leonard got the Bulls going and the bench into the game as the Bulls went into the fourth quarter trailing 73-70.

The Bulls continue their four-game home stand with games against the Denver Nuggets, Charlotte Hornets and Phoenix Suns in their next three games. The team has the Bucks, Grizzlies and Celtics next on the schedule after playing against Chicago.

San Antonio has been one of the most efficient teams in the league to start the season and now they will try and get a win on the road against the Bulls. Sometimes his aggressiveness turns into tunnel vision but those are growing pains the Spurs are surely happy to go through as they develop their new franchise star. Sure, he was guarded by Derrick Rose’s rotting carcass for most of the night, but he made good play after good play.

The Spurs take on the Bulls as a three-point favorite.

The Bulls started the third with a 49-48 lead after overcoming a 23-17 deficit at the end of the first on 13-of-26 shooting (50 percent) in the second.

The Bulls beat the Spurs in Chicago last season, 104-81. I thought Tony Parker and Danny Green were great defensively on Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver.

Chicago attempts an average of 22.0 three pointers per game and San Antonio attempts 19.0 per game on average.

Losing to the Bulls in Chicago is not a tragedy, especially this early in the season. The San Antonio Spurs rank 25th in offensive rebounding. The Spurs fell to 14-4 after having won 11 of their previous 12.