Spurs drop another on the road despite DeRozan’s heroic effort

DeMar DeRozan matched his season-high in points tonight but it just wasn’t enough to get it done on the road as the San Antonio Spurs suffered another frustrating loss.

The San Antonio Spurs lose another tough one, this time falling 110-109 on the road to the Chicago Bulls. DeMar DeRozan matched his season-high in points with 36 but it wasn’t enough to get it done as a late missed free throw prevented the Spurs from taking this one into overtime.

The charity stripe giveth and the charity stripe taketh away. The Spurs nearly doubled up the Bulls free throw total with a 23 to 14 advantage in that statistic. DeRozan matched the Bulls all by himself, accounting for 14 of the Spurs total made free throws. Unfortunately, Jakob Poeltl’s two for eight performance from the line hurt the Spurs at the end.

Poeltl wasn’t hitting his free throws but he was doing everything else the Spurs need him to. His 13 rebounds in tonight’s contest are his second-most of the season and his three blocks were truly impressive as well. He’s really come on this season as a strong rim protector and was proving that once again tonight.

As he’s done all season, Patty Mills was a spark off the bench for San Antonio. He knocked down six of his twelve three-pointers to finish the game with 25 points. On a night where the Spurs didn’t get much else from their bench, Patty’s performance was a welcome sight. With his six three’s he also moved into second all-time among Spurs players in terms of three-pointers made. Only Manu Ginobili ranks ahead of Patty on the Spurs all-time list of great long-range shooters.

With this triple, @Patty_Mills moves into second place on the Spurs all-time three-pointers list. #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/ym3RdkSYmQ

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) January 28, 2020

It won’t show up in the box score but Derrick White was also impressive tonight. He only came away with one block and no steals but he was bothersome on defense all night. He took a tough charge and was in the Bulls guards jerseys all night. He’s an impact player even on nights where it doesn’t show up in the box score. Hopefully, he replaces Bryn Forbes in the starting lineup sooner rather than later.

We also got a little Chimezie Metu sighting tonight. With LaMarcus Aldridge sitting this one out, Metu was called up to provide depth to the Spurs frontcourt. He only played 11 minutes and didn’t make that much of an impact but did generate one highlight dunk that should sustain Spurs fans until his next appearance.

Highlight dunks and historic achievements are great but this loss further widens the gap between the Spurs and the playoffs. With the Rodeo Road Trip approaching in February things aren’t getting any easier any time soon. This team needs to turn things around fast if they want to play postseason basketball.