The Bulls made a statement by winning their final game before the All-Star break, 109-99 over the San Antonio Spurs, who came into the game with the NBA's best road record.
Derrick Rose had a career-high 42 points and Luol Deng had 19, including a couple of key threes in the fourth quarter. The Bulls never really trailed in the game and stretched out their lead to as much as 14 in the fourth quarter before winning by 10.
That gives the Bulls a 38-16 record going into the break, which puts them on pace for 58 wins and there's a real shot that they could win 60 for the first time since... well, you know when. They improved their home record to 25-4.
Now, let's talk about the TNT national broadcast. Besides the bizarre pregame show which had the announcers and guests sitting in front of what looked like a pile of gravel on fire, can someone please tell Turner that Dick Stockton is no longer a competent professional sports announcer? He butchers the MLB playoffs, and appeared to be rooting for the Spurs through half the game (saying "finally!" when one of them hit a three). Seriously -- the NBA can do better than this.
So the Bulls go into the break on a high note; Rose will represent the team well in the game and hopefully, Joakim Noah will be at 100% for the next regular season game next Wednesday in Toronto.
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