Days After Losing To The Worst, Bulls Again Prove They Can Beat One Of The Best

By Cody Westerlund--

CHICAGO (CBS) -- With a simple line, point guard Rajon Rondo offered a glimpse into the Bulls' season to date, a pattern that even dates back to before his time in Chicago.

"We can play with the best, and we can lose with the worst," Rondo said.

His words came after Chicago earned a 95-91 win against San Antonio at the United Center on Thursday night. Behind a standout defensive performance in which they held the Spurs (18-5) to 32 points in the first half, the Bulls (12-10) snapped a three-game losing streak that had come against the NBA's worst team (the Mavericks), a team just above .500 (the Blazers) and a team that was at .500 (the Pistons).

In what seems like all-too-typical Bulls fashion dating back to the 2014-'15 season, that slump was bookended on the other side by a win over the East-leading and defending champion Cavaliers.

So how to you figure?

"Sometimes when you play lesser teams from the standpoint of name recognition wise, you don't do things the same as you would when you play against the Cavs and the Spurs and the Golden State Warriors of the world," said Dwyane Wade, who had a team-high 20 points, five rebounds and five assists. "But if you want to be a good team, you have to. You have to approach every game the same no matter who you're playing. We have to build to that."

Through thick and thin, the Bulls continue to find ways to get up for games in the spotlight. In an amazing nugget, they've now won 16 straight regular-season home games on TNT on Thursday nights, a streak that dates back to February 2013.

After this latest victory, coach Fred Hoiberg emphasized to his Bulls the importance of bringing the same focus they did against the Spurs against all competition. Of course, it's the same message he preached last Friday after the win against the Cavaliers, and it didn't stick.

"We got us a long season," Wade said. "We got time to fix it. We've obviously shown we can play with the good teams in this league, home or road, but we still have time to fix that, as long as we understand what we need to do."

On Thursday, Rondo thought the Bulls understood exactly what they needed to do. Just days after serving a one-game suspension for an outburst at an assistant coach that reportedly stemmed in part from frustration over the defensive game plan in the loss the Mavericks, Rondo praised the Bulls' focus in adhering to the principles of the scouting report.

"First I got to give credit to my coaches," Rondo said. "We were prepared this morning. The scouting report told us some key things we needed to do to beat San Antonio, and that's what we did tonight. We finally listened to the scouting report.

"Last couple games, we'd been making game-plan decision mistakes. Tonight was a big emphasis to follow the game plan and continue to stay solid."

As he's done often, Butler traced the success back to defense. The Bulls were locked in all night against the NBA's second-best team, holding the Spurs to 40 percent shooting, limiting them to five trips to the free-throw line and winning the rebounding battle.

"We got good players," Butler said. "If we guard, offense is easy."

Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for CBSChicago.com and coversthe Bulls. He's also the co-host of the @LockedOnBulls podcast, which you can subscribe to on iTunes and Stitcher. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.