Steph makes timely return to form in Warriors’ win over Bulls

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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…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/steph-makes-timely-return-form-230621677.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2025-02-08 23:06:00

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