Manu gives Bulls a swift kick

For a change, Tim Duncan was not the main man in the San Antonio Spurs' 
96-82 comeback victory over the Bulls on Monday night at the United 
Center before 18,233.

The night belonged to Argentine teammate Manu Ginobili, who scored 11 
straight points and 14 of his 26 in the fourth quarter when Eddie 
Robinson, Kendall Gill and Jamal Crawford could not stop him.

"We lost Ginobili, and the game got away from us,'' said Scott Skiles, 
who lost his third game in a row and is 1-3 since replacing fired coach 
Bill Cartwright.

But Crawford remains optimistic about the season despite the losses.

"We're still going to make the playoffs,'' Crawford said. "Coach told us 
today that if the playoffs were to start today, we would be ranked ninth. 
We win four or five games in a row, we'd be in seventh place.''

Crawford led the Bulls (5-15) with 26 points. Duncan finished with 17 
points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Bulls forward Antonio Davis, who 
guarded Duncan, had 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Bulls center Eddy Curry scored all 16 of his points in the fourth 
quarter, and the Bulls rallied from an eight-point deficit to take a 
75-74 lead on his three-point play with 5:18 left. Then Ginobili 
outscored the Bulls 14-3 to give his team an 88-78 lead on a backdoor 
layup with 2:18 to play.

"He just got red-hot running around screens and shooting off quicker 
releases than Reggie Miller,'' Robinson said.

It was only the second time this season that Ginobili had led the Spurs 
(12-10) in scoring. During his torrid stretch, he hit three straight 
three-pointers.

"After the first one, I just felt good,'' Ginobili said. "Then Tony 
[Parker] called some plays for me and I felt confident. Then he called a 
couple of plays for backdoors, and they worked, too.''

The Bulls are 2-8 at home and lost reserve forward Corie Blount to a 
strained left knee in the second quarter after Spurs forward Bruce Bowen 
ran into him. 

"I just hope I didn't tear anything,'' Blount said. "I'm getting an MRI 
on it [today].''

The Bulls outplayed the defending champions in the first half and were 
up 38-31 at halftime.

With help from teammates, Davis was containing Duncan, who averages 22.3 
points and scored only seven points in the first half.

"The first half, we didn't play that great, and they had a lot of 
energy,'' Parker said. 

But the Spurs opened the third quarter with a 16-4 run for a 47-42 lead 
that put the Bulls on their heels and forced Skiles to call a timeout.

"Our third-quarter effort really hurt us,'' Skiles said. "It was very 
poor, to say the least.''