SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio Spurs power forward LaMarcus Aldridge mentioned last week that coach Gregg Popovich instructed him to start asking for the ball more.
Aldridge complied, apparently, as evidenced by the jump-shooting clinic he put on during San Antonio's 119-100 win over the Chicago Bulls, the club's first Christmas Day triumph since 2008.
Aldridge knocked down his first 11 attempts to start Sunday's game in producing his first 30-point outing of the season with 33, his seventh such night with the Spurs, while setting a club scoring record in Christmas Day games.
"Once you hit two or three, the basket just seems big," Aldridge said. "I didn't see this coming."
Neither did the Bulls, who played Aldridge with "a different scheme than I've seen in a while," Aldridge said. Going into the game, he "kind of had an idea" Robin Lopez would be guarding him, and if that happened, the Bulls' center would be in what's called a "push," which essentially means he'd be down low, thus opening up shooting opportunities for Aldridge.
"It was there. I took it. The rest happened," Aldridge said.
Aldridge poured in 25 points in the opening half -- 20 in the first quarter alone -- on 11-of-12 shooting, marking the second time he has accomplished that feat against the Bulls. Aldridge has scored 25 or more in the first half on three occasions, with the Bulls playing the victim in two.
Running up the court, Bulls power forward Nikola Mirotic made it a point to let Aldridge know.
"Mirotic told me. He was like, 'Yeah, you've done this before against us," Aldridge said.
Did you laugh?
"He was kind of mad about it. So I didn't laugh at all."
Aldridge connected on 11-of-11 off passes from teammates in the first half, but half of his attempts went uncontested. Bad move for Chicago, as Aldridge drained all six uncontested shots. With Lopez serving as the primary defender on Aldridge in the first half, he connected on 5 of 5.
Aldridge finished the night shooting 15-of-20 to go with nine rebounds.
"We're always happy when he catches and shoots, and doesn't think too much about if he's open at all," Popovich said. "He's a great shooter. We like to have him shoot it, but he's also unselfish. So he wants to run what we're running and that kind of thing. I think he's starting to figure out that it's important for us for him to score."
An assertive Aldridge certainly opens up offense for the rest of his teammates. San Antonio hit 21 field goals on 19 assists in the first half with nine players tallying at least an assist. David Lee was the only Spurs contributor to play minutes in the first half without an assist.
The Spurs connected on 84.2 percent from the field in the opening quarter, which registers as the team's best percentage in any quarter of this season. The performance marked San Antonio's best shooting quarter since Dec. 10, 2014, when the Spurs made 84.6 percent against the New York Knicks.
San Antonio started off nailing 12 of 13 in the first quarter, and the only made field goal that wasn't a jumper was a dunk by Aldridge on a lob from Danny Green. San Antonio didn't miss its first shot until the 6:28 mark of the opening quarter, and by then it led 19-6.
"Working with him gets me open," Green said. "I pretty much have to work off him. I get excited when he gets the ball in the post. It's one of the few times I can get looks and get open, when they go to double him. When he's shooting the way he's shooting, it opens the floor for everybody, but especially me."
Aldridge connected on 8 of 8 in the first half from distances of 18 feet or farther. Aldridge tied Fabricio Oberto for the most makes by a Spur to start a game without a miss (11). Oberto started out 11 of 11 in 2006 against the Phoenix Suns.
"I mean, when a player goes off like LaMarcus did today, it opened things up," Spurs center Pau Gasol said. "It definitely creates an impact right away on the game. It didn't seem to change the coverage on him; it just allowed him to take those rhythm shots, and pretty open, too. And we just kept going at it, and he kept making them. So that's great. Great for us because it gives us a little cushion. So when they made their run, we still had room for reaction [to] get the control back of the game. I was happy to see that. It doesn't happen every game. So great for LaMarcus, and great for us."
Prior to Sunday, Aldridge's best start without missing a shot came in 2008 against the Los Angeles Clippers, when he started 7-of-7 as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers.
"As long as we're pushing the pace and moving the ball, we're a hard team to guard," said Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, who contributed 25 points as one of four double-figures scorers for San Antonio. "[Aldridge] brought the energy tonight on that level. He's aggressive every night. They're double teaming him, and he's kicking out. Tonight, he just got in a groove early and made every shot."
Such a hot night would seem improbable given the circumstances leading up to it.
After all, the Spurs played the Clippers on the road Thursday before traveling to Portland to face the Trail Blazers on Friday. The team's plane landed back in San Antonio at approximately 5 a.m. on Saturday, and the Spurs tipped off at 4 p.m. Sunday when hosting the Bulls.
Popovich mentioned that "everybody has something on their schedule that drives them crazy at some point during the season," adding that "I guess this is ours."
Meanwhile, Aldridge said that, as a player, "sometimes you do" know when a fantastic performance is afoot.
"But tonight, I definitely didn't [expect this]," Aldridge said. "Some days, you wake up with extra energy, that extra juice. That wasn't today. It wasn't today. We got home at 4:30-5, and I was up at 9 a.m. doing Christmas with the family. I was scared I wouldn't have juice today. So I was happy that it went the opposite way."
