During the Rodeo Road Trip, I got a chance to speak to San Antonio Spurs rookie guard Gary Neal in Philadelphia about him participating in tonight's T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and come to find out, this will mark his first time ever going to the All-Star weekend, let alone participating in it.

"It's a new experience for me," said Neal. "I've never been to an All-Star game, All-Star weekend or anything like that. So I'm just really looking forward to it."

Neal will be going up against fellow Spurs teammate DeJuan Blair who will be playing for the sophomore squad and he is hoping to go one-on-one against Blair.

"It's going to be fun. Hopefully I can get a couple of switches out on him on the perimeter and attack him a little bit."

What about crossing-up Blair on the perimeter?

"Yeah have a little fun with it," Neal said smiling.

Regardless of the outcome of the game, Neal knows to just have fun in Los Angeles.

"But it's going to be a good experience. Just something I'm looking forward to and really looking to enjoy," Neal said.

Box Score | Advanced Stats | GameFlow

Only one thing stood between the San Antonio Spurs and a win to close out the rodeo road trip last night in Chicago.

A 6-3, 190 lb. point guard named Derrick Rose.

Rose scored a career-high 42 points against the Spurs using every trick in his arsenal no matter who was defending him, and it was more than enough to give the Spurs their 10th loss of the season 99-109.

While Tony Parker did his best to carry the team offensively, scoring 26 points, Manu Ginobili struggled, scoring 16 points on 6-of-18 from the field and making just one of his five three-point attempts.

For the spurs, Gary Neal scored 16, Tim Duncan had 14 and Richard Jefferson finished with 12 points.

Luol Deng scored19 and Carlos Boozer added 15 points for the Bulls.

With the loss, the Spurs are now 46-10 on the season, six games ahead of the Dallas Mavericks.

In Retrospect

Jeff Garcia spoke to Marco of Horns to the Hardwood before the game and asked him if people are sleeping on the Bulls in the East.

"Everyone is enamored with the Heat and the Celtics. The Heat get the attention for having 2 superstars and one good player on their team. The Celtics get the attention because they're really good, and because Boston is ESPN's child. The Bulls sit at 37-16, two games back of the 1 seed in the East. And the biggest reason teams are sleeping on the Bulls is because you really don't know how good Derrick Rose is until you see him everyday. He's really picked up the load with Noah and Boozer out for extended stretches, and will carry them deep into the post-season."

In Black & White

Rose in bloom spells Spurs' doom (San Antonio Express-News)

Derrick Rose’s career-best helps Bulls beat Spurs (Chicago Sun-Times)

Quoteable

"To date we have a good record but nothing of importance has been accomplished yet." - Gregg Popovich

Fantasy Focus

I don't think I have to waste any keystrokes talking about Rose and his performance. Plus if you don't have him on your roster, you aren't getting him without a trade.

Gary Neal seems to have bounced back from his slump, averaging 13.5 points his last four games. He scored 16 points against Chicago and made four of his five three-point attempts.

Tweeting the game

The Michael Jordan Award for BEASTIN' goes to Chicago's Derrick Rose dropping a career-high 42 pts + 8 asts vs NBA best #spurs. Sick. -@therealcabbie.

Derrick Rose- first Bulls player since Michael Jordan to score 40+ points against the Spurs. Rose, career-high 42 points in the Bulls win. - @Buccigross.

The Four Factors

 

This Sunday is the 2011 All-Star game and if you happen to be in Los Angeles this weekend and a San Antonio Spurs fan hoping to see Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich then you are in luck.

Tickets are still available! Click HERE to get them while they are still available and be part of the action!

San Antonio Spurs forward and native of New Hampshire Matt Bonner made a cameo in a music video titled "Granite State of Mind," a video tribute to the State of New Hampshire inspired by the Jay-Z song "Empire State of Mind."

Start out around the 2:10 point of the video and let it play so as to not miss any of Bonner's cameo.

After routing their previous two opponents on the road, the San Antonio Spurs (46-10) failed to finish their rodeo trip on a high note.

Derrick Rose attacked the Spurs' defense time and again to help the Chicago Bulls beat the league leading Spurs 109-99.

Here are some of the numbers that stood out in this Spurs' loss. 

85 - The Bulls made their free throws, hitting 17-20 (85%) shots from the foul line. The Spurs were not as good, making just 14-21 (66.7%) of their free throw attempts.

19 - Luol Deng added 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists for Chicago.

 Hit the jump for more stats and find out what's next for the Spurs!

• Seems being away from home on the Rodeo Road Trip allows for some team bonding for the San Antonio Spurs:



 • Speaking of the Spurs' Rodeo Road Trip, Antonio McDyess knows all about dining on the road:

McDyess said that landing late at night into a city and finding food isn’t always so easy. “It’s always tough,” said McDyess. “You don’t know when to go to sleep, when not. Some hotels have room service, some don’t. Especially for the young guys. It’s tougher for them as opposed to us old guys who have a little more experience with this.”

McDyess said he prefers to order in as opposed to venturing out in foreign cities. However, when it comes to New York City, there is one place he just has to visit: Angelo & Maxie’s Steakhouse on Park Avenue and 19th St. in Manhattan. (sportsandfood.com)

• But which Spurs player is the biggest eater? If you guessed DeJuan Blair, you are correct.

“DeJuan [Blair],” McDyess said with a chuckle. “But I can’t say that to him because he’s on a diet.” (sportsandfood.com)

• Pounding The Rock talks about Spurs' Steve Novak, 100 three point-shots, and the art of shooting.

• The Tower Light has some nice words for Spurs' Gary Neal and his participation at the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge:

Gary Neal’s story is pretty awesome if you ask me. He has gone from playing at LaSalle and Towson in his college career to the European leagues and now the Spurs. Every stop of the way has come with bumps in the road, but there have been more peaks than valleys with the league-leading Spurs.

I’ll be glued to my TV set this Friday night to catch a glimpse of Neal amongst the NBA’s brightest young stars at All-Star Weekend. I can see it now: Neal throwing an alley-oop lob to Blake Griffin, who throws it down and gives the Spur a high-five as he struts down the court. Everyone smiles. Especially me.

• And speaking of Neal, Express News' Tim Griffin reports ESPN's Outside the Lines will do a feature on Neal.

Hit the jump to read how to win free tickets to the upcoming Spurs-Oklahoma City Thunder game in San Antonio, where a former Spurs' player is now playing, which former Spur was listed as a bust in the NBA, on the Spurs winning quietly, about a former Spur in some legal trouble and more.

San Antonio Spurs' point guard Tony Parker was on the ballot to participate in the 2011 Taco Bell Skills Challenge at the 2011 All-Star weekend which kicks off tomorrow in Los Angeles.

For the first time fans were allowed to vote on who will be participating in this competition and the fans did not vote for Parker to participate.

Here is who the fans voted in:

Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, John Wall of the Washington Wizards and Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder were selected by fans to compete against Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets in the 2011 Taco Bell® Skills Challenge on Feb. 19, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. (nba.com)

After being considered an All-Star snub, seems Parker just can't get any love from NBA fans.

Hopefully for the All-Star weekend next season, Spurs fans can come out in force to get Parker voted into this event if he is on the ballot.

According to the Huffington Post, San Antonio Spurs' star Tim Duncan will start at center for the 2011 Western Conference All-Star squad this Sunday in Los Angeles:

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says Tim Duncan will replace Yao Ming in the Western Conference's starting lineup for Sunday's All-Star game in Los Angeles.

The 34-year-old Duncan is averaging a career-low 13.4 points and 9.2 rebounds, but was picked as a reserve by the coaches. Now, the longtime San Antonio star will make his 12th consecutive All-Star start.

Popovich, who will coach the West, says "it's totally appropriate and obvious" that Duncan should start the game at Staples Center.

According to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News, Antonio McDyess has decided that he's not yet ready to hang up his size 14 sneakers.

Antonio McDyess, the 36-year-old Spurs forward who as recently as last month had been leaning toward retirement at the end of the season, said Thursday he plans to return for a 15th season.

“My mind is pretty much made up,” McDyess said. “I feel like I’ll be able to lace ‘em up and go again.”

When McDyess joined the Spurs as a free agent in July 2009, his plan was to play two more seasons and call it quits. As an incentive, the Spurs built into McDyess’ contract a third season in 2011-12, of which only $2.64 million is guaranteed — sort of an early retirement present.

McDyess is playing about three minutes less than last season and his numbers haven't seemed to be effected by the dip in playing time. He's also played a bigger role this season than originally expected, something he didn't foresee coming into this season.

"I don't know what my role will be, but whatever it is I'm going to take it and I'm pretty sure it's going to be totally different than what it was last year," McDyess said during training camp.

McDyess' role hasn't changed due to Tiago Splitter's development taking longer than expected, especially due to an injury during training camp. After a few turn-back-the-clock games and his game-winning tip in in Los Angeles, I expect that Spurs fans are glad to hear that he'll be sticking around.

The San Antonio Spurs (46-9) will face the Chicago Bulls (37-16) tonight in Chicago and conclude the Rodeo Road Trip.

After the Spurs' win against the New Jersey Nets this past Monday, I got some quick thoughts from Spurs' center DeJuan Blair on the Bulls and Carlos Boozer heading into tonight's matchup.

"They got a heck of a team. We got to bring everything," said Blair. "We cant slack off and do nothing. We just got to play hard, and try to get this. Get a great, great, great, great start off."

Blair will also be facing the Bulls' big man Carlos Boozer, and Blair is eager to face him.

"Boozer is a wonderful player. I played against him last year in Utah. I can't wait to play against him. It's going to be fun."