The Warriors ended their eight-game homestand with a bang, beating the visiting Bulls 119-93 on Friday night at Chase Center.
Stephen Curry connected on a season-high matching nine 3-pointers and tallied 40 points, Draymond Green flirted with a triple-double and the Dubs’ rode an impressive defensive effort to their seventh straight win.
TEAM LEADERS
After starting the game with some sloppy play – the Dubs had five of their seven first quarter turnovers in the first four-and-a-half minutes of the game, the team locked in defensively. Down by six points at the end of the first quarter, the Warriors outscored Chicago 63-33 over the second and third quarters and maintained the double-digit advantage the rest of the way.
CURRY ON A MISSION
Playing against a Bulls team that started the evening tied for first place in the Eastern Conference, Curry answered the challenge. He hit two early 3-pointers in the second period to get momentum back in the Dubs’ favor, and he continued to attack the Bulls’ usual tough defense throughout the night. Curry would finish the game with 40 points, his third 40-point game of the season, matching his season-high with nine 3-pointers. Curry shot 15-for-24 overall, and the Warriors outscored Chicago by 31 points in Curry’s 34 minutes of game action.
DUBS DEFENDING
The Bulls came into Friday’s game with the fifth best offense in the NBA, averaging 110.5 points per 100 possessions. But the Warriors’ have the league’s best defense (99.2 points allowed per 100 possessions), and that started to show itself after the first quarter. The Dubs’ had more points in the third quarter (35) than Chicago had over the second and third quarters combined (33), and the Bulls finished with a season-low 93 points. The Warriors forced Chicago into 20 turnovers, 15 of those coming by way of steals. Gary Payton II accounted for three of those steals, including one that he turned into a reverse dunk on the other end that gave the Warriors a lead they would never relinquish in the second quarter.
WARRIORS THROW DOWN
That Payton steal and dunk was one of several eyebrow raising Warriors hammers throughout the game, as Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Jonathan Kuminga all came through with some rim-rocking dunks that had Chase Center rocking.
WHEN A HOMESTAND ENDS, A ROAD TRIP BEGINS
The Warriors finished what was tied for the longest homestand in franchise history with a 7-1 record. The Dubs opened the homestand with an overtime loss to the Grizzlies but then rallied for seven straight wins, with each of those victories being decided by at least 13 points. After being home for two and a half weeks, the Warriors will look to keep the momentum rolling as they hit the road for four straight games in a six-day span that starts on Sunday in Charlotte.
More Notables ...
- Golden State improves to 11-1, its best start since their NBA record 24-0 start to begin the 2015-16 season... The Warriors currently own the NBA’s best record.
- On their franchise-record-tying eight-game homestand, the Warriors posted a 7-1 record, the best mark in franchise history for a homestand of this length… According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last team to win seven-or-more games in a homestand of eight-or-more games within a single season was last season’s Clippers (7-2 in a 9-game homestand)… The last team to win 87.5% of their games in a homestand of eight games or longer was the 2008-09 Hawks (7-1 from 12/13-12/29/08)… Over the eight-game homestand the Warriors averaged 116.6 points per game while holding their opponent to 98.3 points (40.4 FG% and 29.6 3FG%).
- The Warriors won their ninth-straight game over the Bulls and 12 of the last 14 overall… Golden State has won seven-straight home games vs. the Bulls and 19 of the last 23 contests played in the Bay Area… The two teams meet again in Chicago on January 14, 2022.
- Golden State remains the only NBA team to score 100-or-more points in each game this season… According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time the Warriors had a streak this long to start a season was in 2015-16 when they reached the century mark in their first 12 games.
- The Warriors held their opponent to 99-or-fewer points for the fifth time this season and are 5-0 in those contests.
- Tonight’s 26-point win marked their seventh-straight win by at least 10 points, tied for the second-longest streak in franchise history (fourth time) and trailing only an eight-game streak of 10-plus point wins in 2014-15.
- The Warriors won their seventh-straight game, marking their best home and overall winning streak of the season.
- For the seventh time this season the Warriors made at least 15 3-pointers… They are 7-0 in those games.
- Golden State has won 26 of its last 32 games dating back to last season.
- The Warriors recorded a season high 15 steals (previous: 14, twice), extending their double-figure steals streak to six games, the longest since setting the franchise-record of 11-straight in 2016-17… Golden State improved to 10-0 this season when recording more steals than its opponent… The Warriors recorded 95 steals over the homestand an average of 11.88 steals per game.
- Stephen Curry led all scorers with 40 points, his third 40-point game of the season, becoming the only player to record three games of 40-plus this season… The Warriors are 44-8 all-time in games he scores 40-plus… Curry made nine 3-pointers (for the second time this season and the 36th time in his career), extending his 3-point streak to 137 consecutive games, second-longest such streak in NBA history, trailing only his 157-game streak.
- Nemanja Bjelica matched a season-high with four assists.
- Jonathan Kuminga scored a career-best eight points (previous: three on 10/30 vs. OKC).