Outstanding plays from the Spurs’ win over the Bulls

Some Spurs fans got their Christmas wish answered as an aggressive LaMarcus Aldridge came out firing and hitting against the Bulls. Was it the big stage of Christmas Day? Who knows -- who cares. Aldridge made 11 straight right out of the gate, staking San Antonio to a huge lead, and most of them looked just like this.

Not all of LMA’s scores were jumpers. In this 3rd quarter play Tony Parker, makes a nice baseline drive, skips around a Lopez and puts up a reverse that just misses. But Aldridge follows him in, grabs the offensive rebound and takes the ball back up in heavy traffic.

After Chicago made it a game, Patty Mills passes to David Lee who just misses on the jumper. But Kawhi Leonard see an open lane and the opportunity for a free rebound. He gets into the paint and perfectly times his leap to grab the rebound and casually slam it home. (Try ignoring the shot to just watch KL make this play look easy. It’s as though he knows where the ball is going to be before it even comes off the rim.)

David Lee had another solid game so lets look at a play he made against Nikola Mirotic. He starts his drive to the right, loses the ball, gathers himself and resets. He makes one hard move and immediately spins into a pretty one-handed jumper.

Here are two Danny Green back-to-back threes. In the first, Danny dribbles around a Dewayne Dedmon screen and pulls up into a pure three from the wing. In the second, Kawhi drives and kicks to Danny who buries a corner three with pressure right in his face. These shots were came in a huge spot and gave the home team the distance they needed to make most of the 4th a forgone conclusion.

Two more Parker plays in this GIF. First, Tony brings the ball up on the right hand side, puts on a burst of speed as he cuts left above the free throw line and gets all the way to the rim for one of those left handed baskets that look destined to be blocked, but rarely ever do. In the second play he dribbles up in transition, takes an early screen from LaMarcus, and steps into an elbow jumper when no one in red makes a move to cover him.

There’s defense and offense here as Pau Gasol continues the San Antonio tradition of a big man in the paint blocking a shot without really leaving his feet. The play begins as Taj Gibson spins to his left only to find that Pau has anticipated his ex-teammate’s move for the rejection. Tony quickly grabs the ball and goes the length of the floor, posts up, and executes a quick up-and-under move for the easy two.

This game was better than your average blowout. It was the home team’s first Christmas Day win since 2008, and it should make for a pretty good film day this week.