Bulls vs. Warriors: Score, Highlights and Reaction from 2015 Regular Season
The Golden State Warriors ran their record to a perfect 14-0 Friday night following a 106-94 victory over the Chicago Bulls at home in Oracle Arena.
The final score is somewhat deceiving, as there was a difference of just three points between the teams with two minutes, 58 seconds remaining. The Warriors closed exceptionally well, with back-to-back three-pointers from Harrison Barnes sealing the victory.
Following the second made three, the Warriors bench let loose, per CBS Sports:
Barnes finished with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting and added nine rebounds.
His scoring output was much needed for Golden State after Stephen Curry had an uncharacteristically poor night from the field. He missed 11 of his 20 field-goal attempts and shot 3-of-11 from beyond the arc. Curry scored 27 points to go along with five rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Jimmy Butler approached triple-double territory, notching 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Butler's scoring obviously helped the Bulls stay in the game, but CBS Chicago's Cody Westerlund thought the totality of his performance is what stood out the most about his night:
Pau Gasol and Nikola Critic each posted double-doubles, with Gasol going for 14 points and 10 rebounds and Mirotic notching 18 points and 10 boards of his own.
As you'd expect with the Warriors less than 24 hours removed from their comeback victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State got off to a somewhat sluggish start. The Bulls led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter.
Kirk Hinrich did well filling in for an injured Derrick Rose, who missed the game due to a sprained ankle, per ESPN.com's Nick Friedell. Through the first 12 minutes, Hinrich accounted for nine points and actually played better than the NBA MVP, per Robert Mays:
Curry at least had the stronger individual highlight, picking the pocket of Joakim Noah before finding Andre Iguodala for an alley-oop, per the NBA:
"Chef Curry cooks up a steal and serves up a perfect lob to Iggy and it's LIVE on @ESPN! #NBARapidReplay #CHIat GSW https://t.co/2iUgAbfIWD
— NBA (@NBA) November 21, 2015"
Golden State righted the ship in the second quarter, outscoring Chicago 22-18 and taking a 50-47 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Cauldron's Nate Duncan still thought the Warriors were running into some issues on the offensive end:
The Bulls continued to hang with the Warriors through the third quarter, tying the game five times before two free throws from E'Twaun Moore gave Chicago a 65-64 lead with 4:58 left in the quarter. But after a Doug McDermott three put the Bulls ahead 70-67, Golden State closed the third on a 10-3 run to go ahead by four, 77-73.
Two critical buckets in the fourth quarter started irrevocably swinging the game in the Warriors' favor. First, Festus Ezeli finished off an alley-oop from Draymond Green to give Golden State a three-point lead:
Then, after a three-pointer from Hinrich tied the game at 89-89, Curry nailed a three of his own, which really brought the Oracle Arena crowd alive, per the Warriors:
During the final four minutes, Warriors coach Luke Walton opted for Golden State's smaller lineup of Curry, Green, Barnes, Iguodala and Klay Thompson, which is arguably the best five-man combination in the NBA. According to NBA.com, the quintet have a net rating of 68.1, including a 157.0 offensive rating.
Walton might as well have called up Mariano Rivera to close out the ninth inning.
While the odds the Warriors go 82-0 in the regular season are astronomical, you do wonder when they'll lose their first game.
Friday looked like a perfect storm of factors playing against Golden State. This was the second half of a back-to-back, and the Bulls' impressive team defense was bound to exacerbate any fatigue Golden State's players were feeling as a result.
But the reigning champions still found a way to win.
Two teams—the 1948-49 Washington Capitols and 1993-94 Houston Rockets—started the year 15-0, with Golden State just two games away from besting that mark, and those two games come against the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers.
A 16-0 start is well within reach for the Warriors, and from there, and with each successive victory, talk of a 70-win season becomes less and less unthinkable.
Postgame Reaction
After the game, Walton called his small-ball lineup of Curry, Barnes, Green, Iguodala and Thompson a "knockout punch," per ESPN's Ethan Sherwood Strauss.
With Festus Ezeli playing so well, Walton won't need to rely on that "knockout punch" too often, which is arguably for the best. While those five players are unquestionably effective when they're on the floor, some of that effectiveness might wane a bit should they spend more and more minutes together.
The lineup is almost an ace in the hole for the Warriors, and they know they can throw it out there in close games to seal the win.
Over on the Bulls' sideline, Butler scared fans a bit when he appeared to limp off the floor near the end of the game, at which point the outcome was already decided.
He allayed those fears by explaining the situation wasn't any different than any other game.
"I'm fine. I just wanted to take my shoe off," he said, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. "That's the way I walk when we lose."
