Bulls at Spurs
The last thing the struggling Chicago Bulls need is a trip to San Antonio in a nationally televised game, but that's just what they're going to get Sunday when they visit the Spurs on Christmas. The Bulls are making a series of small mistakes while dropping five of their last six contests, and San Antonio is the type of disciplined group that takes advantage of those miscues.
"It's just not enough consistency," Chicago guard Dwyane Wade told reporters after a 103-91 setback in Charlotte on Friday. "We have to get to the point where we decide, as a team, to be more consistent in what we do - in our coverages, in the way we run the offense. We're not going to make shots all the time. But we have to shoot our shots. We have to get back in transition and make them see as many defenders as possible." The Bulls failed to reach 100 points in seven of their last nine games and fell below .500 with Friday's setback. The Spurs are cruising right along and bounced back from a rare loss by pounding the Portland Trail Blazers 110-90 to close out a three-game road trip on Friday. San Antonio rested Pau Gasol, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili in Portland and should have its full lineup ready for Sunday.
TV: 5 p.m. ET, ABC
ABOUT THE BULLS (14-15): Chicago shot 39.6 percent from the field on Friday but Wade was reluctant to blame anything specific about the offense. "I'm not mad at the shots we're getting," Wade told reporters. "We're just not making enough of them. Some of them, yeah, are tough. Some of them are forced. Every team takes those. But I'm not mad, for the majority of it, the shots that we're getting, honestly we're just not making enough of them at this point in the season." Wade is 12-of-36 from the field in the last two games while backcourt mate Rajon Rondo is 4-of-20 in that span.
ABOUT THE SPURS (24-6): The player San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich is most reluctant to rest is star small forward Kawhi Leonard, who logged an average of 34 minutes on the three-game trip and capped it off with 33 points on 9-of-15 shooting in Friday's triumph. The 25-year-old was more aggressive than normal on the excursion and attempted at least 10 free throws in each contest (going 31-of-34) after failing to log double-digit free-throw attempts in any of the first eight games this month. Leonard was joined in his efficiency on Friday by guard Patty Mills, who went 7-of-9 from the floor and buried five 3-pointers in the win.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Bulls C Robin Lopez and PF Taj Gibson were both ejected in the fourth quarter of Friday's contest.
2. Spurs SG Danny Green is 13-of-25 from 3-point range over the last six games.
3. Wade scored 20 points in Chicago's 95-91 home win over San Antonio on Dec. 8.