On-Air Now
On-Air Now
Listen Live from the Casino Matrix Studio

Warriors overwhelm Bulls as Curry’s 26-point second quarter sparks blowout

By

Kerry Crowley

/

OAKLAND–The Chicago Bulls are an awful basketball team.

Armed with a record of 3-13, Fred Hoiberg’s squad entered Oracle Arena on Friday night without much of a chance to take down the Golden State Warriors. And that was after Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr helped level the playing field by sitting Kevin Durant (ankle) and Draymond Green (rest).

As much as the Bulls’ general hopelessness took away from Friday’s matchup, though, it hardly would’ve mattered who the Warriors were playing.

Steph Curry was in a zone.

Sparked by a 26-point second quarter effort, Curry led all scorers with a magnificent 33 points on 10-of-18 from the field and finished the night with a 39-plus-minus in Golden State’s 143-94 victory.

It wasn’t quite the zone Klay Thompson found when he dropped 37 points in a quarter nearly three years ago against the Kings, but it was the type of zone that reminded everyone in the NBA why Curry’s a two-time MVP, the league’s first unanimous MVP and one of the league’s transcendent players.

Curry’s 26-point quarter marked the 21st time in a career he’s scored at least 20 points in a quarter, an absurd stat that undoubtedly places him among the NBA’s all-time scorers. His 31 first half points represented his seventh-career 30-point half, another statistical anomaly that highlights the sheer dominance he’s capable of showcasing on any given night.

What was perhaps the most interesting aspect of Curry’s stunning first half display, though, was that while it ignited the crowd at Oracle Arena and pushed the Warroirs to an insurmountable lead, it simply took all the life out of a Bulls’ team that actually played the Warriors’ evenly in the first quarter.

Maybe it was only a matter of time before Curry or his sharp-shooting Splash Brother Klay Thompson pulled the Warriors away, but without Durant and Green, Golden State was seemingly vulnerable. At one point in the first quarter, Kerr put forth a lineup featuring Thompson, Quinn Cook, Jordan Bell, Omri Casspi and Zaza Pachulia, which underscored the type of depth issues the Warriors would be up against all night.

Ultimately, though, that didn’t matter. Before the news of Durant and Green’s absences came down on Friday, the Warriors were favored by 19.5 points in Las Vegas. The line slid down to 15, and after Chicago took the first quarter 32-29, it appeared as though betting on the Bulls might wind up paying dividends.

In the end, it was one of the Warriors’ easiest covers of the season.

Curry’s 26-point second quarter helped Golden State open up a 21-point halftime lead, and while the Warriors’ star scored just a lone bucket in the third quarter, that hardly mattered as Kerr’s squad wound up winning leading 110-66 at the tend of three.

After scoring 32 points in the first quarter, the Bulls managed just 34 points over the next two quarters against a Warriors’ defense that capitalized on Chicago’s sub-par effort.

Over the summer, the Bulls helped the Warriors out by essentially giving away Bell in a draft-day deal. On Friday, they helped them again, this time by giving up.

 

 

Newsletter
Advertise with us