Steph makes timely return to form in Warriors’ win over Bulls originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
After blowing an 11-point lead over the final three minutes on Wednesday at Utah and getting throttled by the Lakers on Thursday, the Warriors trudged into Chicago on Friday badly in need of a refresh.
They got two in their 132-111 win over the Bulls on Saturday night at United Center.
The first was Jimmy Butler, the newest member of the team and its hope for resurrection, who was tremendous in his Golden State debut, scoring 25 points and generally conducting himself like the savvy, accomplished veteran he is.
The second was Stephen Curry scoring 24 points in one quarter.
Curry played all 12 minutes in the third quarter. His production was remarkable, his timing exquisite. Golden State was trailing by 24, facing an imminent threat and Curry’s cooking squashed it, sparing the Warriors from the indignity of a third consecutive defeat – this one to a disassembled Bulls team that had lost 10 of its previous 14 games.
“I don’t love playing him 12 straight minutes,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters in Chicago. “But he was on fire. He completely flipped the game, so there was no way I was going to take him out.”
The Warriors were sagging and needed Curry’s pyrotechnics to get their blood pumping and send their belief through the roof. Once Curry started lighting it up, scoring his 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, including 5-of-8 beyond the arc and 5-of-6 from the line, the Warriors outscored the Bulls 73-28.
There was no night-night celebration from Curry, perhaps because he inflicted his damage before the fourth quarter. The Bulls went from playing out of their minds – they were shooting 58.3 percent from the field, including 60 percent from deep before Steph’s torching – to withering under Golden State’s ferocious defense over the final 20 minutes.
“It’s extremely demoralizing,” Draymond Green said of Curry’s awakening. “And another thing is that everyone else can get buckets off everything (the defense does). The defense overreacts, you get a slip. It’s definitely demoralizing.”
Curry finished with a game-high 34 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including 8-of-16 beyond the arc. This was the second time in 12 games that he shot better than 50 percent from the field, and the first time he made eight triples on 50-percent shooting since Christmas Day.
There are multiple reasons why Curry was stuck in one of the most difficult stretches of his 16-year career, shooting below 40 percent from the field and barely above 30 percent from deep. He’s coping with physical aches, scant scoring aid from teammates, and opposing defenses so comprehensively focused on him they sometimes project utter indifference toward Warriors not named Steph.
Jimmy Butler’s debut with the Warriors brought a second feared offensive player onto the floor with Curry. Another player who pulls opposing defenses. Whereas Andrew Wiggins, traded for Butler, could punish opponents with scoring, Butler can beat them in a variety of ways, including scoring.
Though Butler has not practiced with the Warriors and did not participate in the team’s shootaround Saturday morning, he played 29 minutes, scoring 25 points on 7-of-12 shooting and recording four assists – with one turnover. His 10-point fourth quarter allowed Kerr to restrict Curry to only three minutes.
“It was more Steph flipping the game, and Jimmy carrying forward that momentum and taking over the game when Steph went out,” Kerr. “It was fun watching it unfold.”
Given their lack of preparation together, it was surprising that Curry and Butler were able to play so well with and off each other, Jimmy being a force inside and Curry demolishing the Bulls from the perimeter. Moreover, it indicates the two of them can provide a potent one-two kick to the chins of any defense.
“One game, a lot to build on,” Curry said. “The first half was kind of a feeling out process, and Chicago got hot. But our composure in that second half was great to see, and just the idea that we were very intentional about everything we were trying to do in the second half. And it obviously worked.”
No matter who else is on Golden State’s roster, and that includes the impactful Butler, the team’s fate tends to be dictated mostly by Curry’s efficiency. When he cooks, the Warriors eat. When he doesn’t the offense starves. They could not have hoped for a better refresh than the sight of Curry escaping from several weeks of scoring futility to look like the Steph the world knows and enjoys.
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