SAN ANTONIO—Derrick Rose shook off flulike symptoms to score 27 points and the Bulls won their third straight, 98-93 over the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night.Kirk Hinrich added 18 points for the Bulls, who again impressively beat a Western Conference team with a winning record on their seven-game road swing. They surprised Houston and Phoenix last week.Put it another way: the Bulls have won just one fewer road game in the last four days than they have in the first three months of the season. The Bulls are now 7-15 on the road.Tony Parker scored 20 points for the Spurs, who have lost five of six. Manu Ginobili scored 14 but was denied twice while barreling to the rim in the final 33 seconds.Luol Deng made sure of that on Ginobili’s first try.Deng swatted his layup back the way Ginobili came with Spurs trailing 95-93 and 32.8 seconds left. Then down by three with 5.9 seconds left, the Spurs called Ginobili’s number again but his layup fell short.Joakim Noah, back after missing the Houston win with plantar fascitis, grabbed the rebound and roared in triumph.The Bulls had done it again on the road and now finish up their Western Conference road trip against Oklahoma City on Wednesday and New Orleans on Friday. Both teams also have winning records, but the surging Bulls aren’t playing afraid of anyone lately having won 11 of 16 after starting the season 10-17. With a win against the Thunder, the Bulls (21-22) can climb back to .500.Rose didn’t practice with the Bulls earlier Monday because of flulike symptoms that Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro described as everything from congestion to “not feeling good.” But Rose looked just fine hours later.He shot 13 of 23 from the floor and hit a pull-up jumper with 56.9 seconds left to put the Bulls ahead 93-91.The Spurs, meanwhile, continued to spiral.San Antonio lost its third straight at home, already squandering half of its six-game homestand before hitting the road for virtually the entire month of February for their annual rodeo road trip.Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has admonished his defense of late, and this won’t help. The Bulls hit 18 of their first 23 shots and stayed above 70 percent shooting for most of the first half.The Bulls finished shooting 54 percent from the floor. Noah had 11 points.Tim Duncan scored 15 points and Antonio McDyess had 14 for the Spurs.
NOTES—Newly acquired Bulls G Devin Brown was expected to join the team in Oklahoma City on Tuesday. The Bulls obtained Brown in a trade with New Orleans before the game, giving up C Aaron Gray. …The Spurs are on their third three-game slide of the season.