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SAN ANTONIO -- The Chicago Bulls took advantage of the injury-riddled San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night. Jimmy Butler had 19 points and Carlos Boozer added 16 points and 12 rebounds and the Bulls handed the Spurs their third straight loss, 96-86. "It was huge," Butler said. "Its big to come in here and get a win on the road." Tony Parker had 20 points and Tim Duncan had 17 points and 12 rebounds for San Antonio, which hadnt lost back-to-back games until this current skid. The Spurs were without Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Tiago Splitter, who were all out due to injuries. Ginobili joined San Antonios growing injury list Tuesday night, straining his left hamstring against Houston after throwing down a one-handed dunk. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich dismissed any talk of fatigue. "I dont care, thats just an excuse," Popovich said. "Everybody tried as hard as they could. I dont know how to measure fatigue. Just go play. We try to watch peoples minutes and that kind of thing. "It doesnt matter whos hurt, or what your schedule is, or anything like that. You go play. Nobody cares. All that matters is the win or the loss. We lost or defensive consistency and they went up." The Bulls can certainly relate after losing All-Star point guard Derrick Rose to a season-ending knee injury. The Bulls have attempted to step up collectively since the injury and that depth led them to their 10th road victory of the season. Chicago had seven players score in double figures, with D.J. Augustin and Taj Gibson adding 15 points each and Joakim Noah had 10 points and 10 rebounds. "We have a roster full of NBA players just like everybody else," Butler said. "A lot of people sleep on us, but we have a really talented group of guys that do so many things well. When we play together and just as hard as we can, I think we can win a lot of games." With four players missing from their main rotation, the Spurs turned to their depth with less effectiveness. Nando De Colo and newly signed Othyus Jeffers, who both played in the D League, both started for the first time this season. Jeffers brought hustle and De Colo another distributor, but neither brought much offence. Jeffers failed to score, going 0 for 1 from the field, and De Colo had eight points. It led to a disjointed and inconsistent offence for San Antonio. The Spurs had 19 turnovers and only 16 assists on their 33 field goals. "Its tough to keep a rhythm," Duncan said. "With a lot of our guys out, our consistency just isnt there on both ends. We cant sustain for the periods of time that we need to. "But at various points throughout the game were where we want to be. And then we go through lulls where defence or offence cant get it done." San Antonio went scoreless for nearly five minutes as part of Chicagos 12-5 run to close the first quarter. It could have been worse, but Patty Mills made a 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds remaining to keep the Spurs within 21-15. San Antonio responded with a 17-3 run to take a 27-24 lead. Chicago scored just seven points in 10 minutes bridging the first and second quarters, turning a 21-12 lead into a 36-28 deficit. But the second half belonged to the Bulls and Butler. "Its just tough right now," Parker said. "Back to back, it felt like we had no energy. We didnt make shots in the first half. We had some pretty good looks in the first half; open 3s. They just didnt go in and we just try to fight through it. We tried to get some energy in the second half, but they played better than us." Butler was 7 for 11 from the field as the Spurs had no answer for the athletic forward. "Jimmy was terrific," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said, "with his defence and then turned that defence into offence, which was a big plus for us." Not having to guard Ginobili, Leonard or Green on the wings allowed Butler to defend Parker and the other Spurs guards. Parker finished 8 for 17 with six assists in 34 minutes. "Its a challenge (defending Parker)," Butler said. "He can do so many things well, but whenever I was beat, I had Taj (Gibson), (Nazr) Mohammed, Jo (Noah) or Booz (Boozer) to alter his shot or make him go a different direction." NOTES: Green (fractured left index finger), Leonard (fractured right fourth metacarpal) and Splitter (sprained right shoulder) all sat behind the bench during the game, all wearing sport coats with no ties. Ginobili was not with the team. ... Noah (illness) and Kirk Hinrich (right hamstring) both played after being game-time decisions due to injury. ... Jeffers endeared himself to the fans and Spurs quickly, diving onto court twice on the same possession for a loose ball, earning a jump ball. ... Noah was given a technical foul with 5:02 remaining in the third by official Josh Tiven. As he ran back defensively, Noah punched the air in disgust after missing a layup he thought was caused by a foul on Duncan. ... When asked how the Spurs will handle the rash of recent injuries, coach Gregg Popovich said he didnt want to be a smart-(aleck) but ... "You play the guys on the bench. We cant play the guys on the other team. I know that." Cheap Phillies Jerseys . Patrick Sharp scored twice and Patrick Kane, Bryan Bickell and Nick Leddy also connected to lead Chicago to a 5-2 win over the Devils on Monday night. Custom Philadelphia Phillies Jerseys . Tensions rose in the first period when Penguins defenceman Brooks Orpik hit Bruins forward Loui Eriksson with what appeared to be a clean hit. https://www.cheapphilliesjerseys.us/ . A little more than one year after missing a last-second tip-in that would have given the Wolverines a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, the 6-foot-8 forward scored on a layup with 7. Wholesale Phillies Jerseys . -- Top-ranked Stacy Lewis birdied the last three holes and five of the final six Thursday for an 8-under 64 and a share of the lead with Mi Jung Hur in the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic. Philadelphia Phillies Pro Shop . The Canadian Luge Association officially named seven athletes to the 2014 Olympic team Tuesday. Edney, will lead teenagers John Fennell and Mitchel Malyk into their first Games in mens singles. Tristan Walker and Justin Snith will represent Canada in doubles, while Gough, will be joined by Kimberley McRae in womens singles.(SportsNetwork.com) - Sometimes regal lineage isnt so easy to prognosticate. With the 24th pick of Round 2 of the 1998 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots chose Rod Rutledge, a 6-foot-5, 262-pound tight end from Alabama - making him the fourth selection in a three-round haul breathlessly labeled by the New York Times as great, pretty impressive and a talent stockpile. The Patriots had the best draft of any team this year, according to five general managers, read an April 20 draft recap penned by Times sportswriter Mike Freeman, under a headline that suggested the team had drafted superbly. One general manager said that the Patriots draft may have been the best in the last three or four years. Needless to say, Freemans next-day assessment of Rutledge and fellow early- rounders Robert Edwards, Tebucky Jones, Tony Simmons, Chris Floyd and Greg Spires inspires little beyond an ironic chuckle these days, as a then-moribund franchise preps for its sixth subsequent Super Bowl participation. Only Jones, a lanky defensive back, started more than two seasons worth of games for the Patriots. And only he and the 6-foot-1 Spires, an undersized pass-rushing defensive end, managed a career whose duration exceeded the six-man groups collective averages of five-plus seasons and 38 games started. Spires, though, made just three of those starts with New England before finding a niche in Tampa Bay, where he started 87 games across six years and won a Super Bowl ring under Jon Gruden. At any rate, though, when kickoff comes on Sunday in Glendale, Ariz., its the long-since anonymous Rutledge wholl have the most direct link to this years dynastic personnel. Though hes not appeared in an NFL game since 2002 and not caught a pass since 2001, the now 39-year-old was on the receiving end of the first completion thrown by the now-veteran quarterback wholl arguably enter University of Phoenix Stadium within 60 minutes of billing as the games all-time best. These days, everyone knows that quarterback as Tom Brady. The guy ex-NFLer Heath Evans places atop the historic list, regardless of this weekends score. You look at the collection of talent that was consistently around Joe (Montana) - and this is no knock on Joe, its just the era he played in,? Evans said. And then now, the constant mixing and matching. Tommys done it with a defense and without a defense. Hes done it with a running game and without running games. Hes done it without Pro Bowl wide receivers and with Pro Bowl wide receivers. Whether he is or isnt better than Montana is undoubtedly a hot sports radio topic now. But back then, in the midst of mop-up duty that wrapped up New Englands 34-9 Thanksgiving Day 2000 loss at Detroit, he was just another late-round wannabe (Round 6, 199th overall) trying to impress a coach (Bill Belichick) whose first season on the job was careening toward a 5-11 disappointment. Belichicks starter that day, Drew Bledsoe, completed 17 throws for 148 yards before an errant toss to Bryant Westbrook with less than five minuttes left yielded a 101-yard pick-6 for the Lions cornerback - and a late-game opening for the Michigan rookie, who, at the time, nobody mistook for a king.dddddddddddd In reality, Brady hadnt so much as taken a snap through the seasons initial 11 games while sitting behind the likes of Bledsoe, John Friesz and Michael Bishop, and to say his arrival in Week 13 was instantly interpreted as a sign of Belichicks genius would be an overstatement of mythical proportions. Not even Brady - whose Canton inclusion is now certain - was convinced his ascension was imminent. I wasnt prepared to play my first year. Thats all that would have happened, I wouldve gone out and get beat and lost a ton of confidence in what I was doing, he said. I was lucky to really have a chance that whole first year to be in a situation where I wasnt forced to play and lose a bunch of confidence. While the six-yard toss to Rutledge - Bradys lone completion in three tries - got him on the official stat sheet for posterity, it was only worthy of a space-filler mention in Nick Cafardos Friday morning post-mortem in the Boston Globe, and a one-line inclusion in the Patriots notebook piece the same day. Then came the Westbrook interception, on a pass intended for Glenn, Cafardo wrote. Bledsoe gallantly fought to make the tackle but had no chance to catch Westbrook, who danced into the end zone. Bledsoe got a handshake from Bill Belichick and was told Tom Brady was taking over. Brady wound up making no more appearances for the duration of the 2000 season, and his lingering presence on the roster the following fall -- with former No. 1 overall pick Bledsoe still firmly entrenched as starter - generated literally no mention when it came time for James Alder, an occasional blog Times blog contributor and football consultant for BBC Radio, to issue his 2001 season forecast. Instead, when it came to the AFC East, Alder and others dismissed the whole team entirely. (The East) will be a three-team race this season, and one of those teams will not be the New England Patriots, he wrote in an Aug. 10 preseason preview. They still have Drew Bledsoe running the offense, but this team has a shortage of impact players on offense and defense. If they manage to put together a decent running game, they may win as many as six games this year. Needless to say, by the time Alder prepped the next years follow-up, the horizon had changed. The frequently-recited version of the Brady legend began in Week 2 of 2001, when Bledsoe was splattered along the sidelines by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis. The Patriots wound up losing to Vinny Testaverdes Jets and fell to 0-2 as Brady went 5-for-10 for a pedestrian 46 yards, but 11 wins in 14 regular- season starts followed -- as did a Super Bowl win against St. Louis that made Rutledge a trivia footnote, Bledsoe an offseason castoff and Brady a superstar. Its fun to watch him. Hes poetry in motion, Washington coach Jay Gruden said. Obviously a Hall of Famer and the best of all time. ' ' '