ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Chicago Bulls were in town to face the Golden State Warriors at #Roaracle. The Bulls were without star guard Jimmy Butler (illness). The Warriors were without center Festus Ezeli (sprained ankle).
1ST QUARTER: Curry Sprinkles His Spice On Every Bulls Charge
Andrew Bogut ran back to the locker room right before tipoff and Marreese Speights started in place of him. Near the end of the first quarter, Warriors PR reported that Bogut had the flu.
Both Golden State and Chicago started the game off in video game fashion as Klay Thompson was in early “fireball” mode as he came out with a three-pointer, then another, then a fade-away, as Derrick Rose answered that with a two of his own triples, the second a step-back on Stephen Curry, that sandwiched an early transition one of Curry’s.
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When Rose scored, the arena cheered, as there were plenty of red Bulls supporters in the stands.
Early on, the #SplashBrothers had all 11 of the Warriors points in an 11-10 lead and were 4-for-4 from the field, but that quickly cooled off as Curry missed an answer-back three after Rose’s.
Rose then went into the paint from right to left and converted a layup in traffic, but Thompson answered at the other end with another fireball from downtown and Twitter went aflame with talk of Klay having another unconscious fifty-point night.
The Warriors stretched an early lead out to 19-12 with 7:52 remaining as Thompson called a switch with Curry as Kirk Hinrich came up off the block from a Rose screen. Curry rightfully let Hinrich have some room maneuvering with Joakim Noah, and bricked the outside shot.
Curry got the long rebound and sent the outlet to Thompson who dunked the fastbreak layup:
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That forced Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau to call the game’s first timeout, in a game that was perhaps the most electric start at Oracle that Warriors fans had seen all season — between two of the NBA’s top defensive teams, no less.
Curry was doing it all with the fast start, getting a blocked shot on Rose although it was facilitated by Draymond Green holding his ground and ready to take the charge. Rose retrieved it, however, and jawed at the ref for a foul.
The Warriors’ “Seven Seconds Or Less”-ish offense was on full display as Thompson got a layup 94 feet away — assisted by Curry for the fifth time in the game — within three seconds after Hinrich buried a jumper.
Rose was clearly up to the challenge, racing back for a high leaping left-handed layup that he seemed to bank off the backboard almost downward with his supernatural athleticism.
But Curry answered the Bulls again, unleashing the #BlackFalcon by finding Harrison Barnes on this alley-oop from near halfcourt:
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Chicago power forward Pau Gasol went on the offensive, attacking the boards, screaming out his familiar yelp of championship Los Angeles Lakers yester-year, and getting a couple of putbacks, to close the Warriors lead to 23-20 with 3:39 to go in the first frame.
But Curry keep his foot on the gas pedal and scored a finger roll, a long rattling two, and — of course! — an early offense three-pointer to answer a Taj Gibson jumper.
Green added a triple assisted by David Lee and they shared the celebration with Lee’s hand going up as Green’s shot went down and Draymond meeting Lee with a low-five on the way back on defense.
Curry closed the quarter with an astounding 10 points on 4-for-6 from the field, 2-for-3 from downtown, and 7 assists. Klay led all scorers with 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting, 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. Rose led the Bulls with 10 points on 4-for-10 on field goals.
The Warriors headed into the second period up, 35-29.
2ND QUARTER: Black Falcon Hammers Down First Half
The second quarter started off sloppily as both teams’ second units spent about a minute-and-a-half turning the ball over and missing shots. Andre Iguodala traveled, both Thompson and Shaun Livingston were called for kicked balls, and the Warriors combined to miss 5 of their first 6 shots.
A three-pointer from the right corner by Barnes, assisted by Lee, finally gave Golden State a little separation, giving the Warriors a 40-33 lead with 8:16 to play in the half. The bucket might be subtly remembered as a milestone for Barnes, as he caught the ball and in a seamless motion, launched it, in essence, mimicking Thompson quick catch-and-release time.
Barnes and Lee combined to score the next 6 points for the Warriors and “Thibs” called another timeout after Barnes stayed hot and drilled another triple to make it 49-39 with 6:01 to go.
But the Bulls went on an 8-0 run — even as Curry returned to the game — as Nikola Mirotic made one of two free throws, nailed a three, Rose got a layup on a strong drive, and Gasol made a jump hook. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout and, with 4:12 to play in the half, the Bulls had cut the lead to 49-47.
Mirotic started to feel it as he got a one-legged Steph-like runner from the left baseline to fall, but neither team could gather momentum as Marreese Speights continued his multi-game slump with a brick off the back iron, then Curry drew a charge on Rose on the other end that looked like an obvious call, but that Rose disagreed with the officials with.
Clanks by Gibson, Rose, and Mirotic for the Bulls and Thompson for the Warriors kept the game that was full of sparks in the first quarter from igniting once more, until Barnes finally got a run-out dunk after stealing a bad pass from Rose:
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That gave the Warriors a 56-51 lead heading into halftime. Thompson led all scorers with 20 points on 8-for-13 field and 4-for-7 downtown as Curry tallied 10 points, 8 assists. Rose led the Bulls with 12 points, but he shot just 5-for-14. The Warriors assisted on 16 of their 23 field goals made, but Chicago led them on the boards, 29-22. Turnovers were even at 8 for Chicago and 7 for Golden State.
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