Bulls vs. Warriors final score: Bulls completely dominant in obliteration of Golden State

Well I sure wasn't expecting that performance, and from the looks of it the Warriors were even more surprised. They were completely embarrassed in the United Center tonight. Especially with the Bulls having played the night before this looked on the schedule to be penciled in as a loss, but instead it was a 20 point victory.

Jimmy Butler's return from a 2-game absence certainly helped the cause, as he and Kirk Hinrich totally shut down the Warriors explosive backcourt. Stephen Curry was abysmal, going 2-10 to finish with 5 points. Klay Thompson was barely better with 8 points, and no Warriors starter had double digits (technically, David Lee only started the 2nd half and he had a mere 11). Hinrich did a great job making Curry's life difficult to where he couldn't get separation, and the Bulls as a whole totally crashed the passes off of the pick and roll. Curry wound up with 5 turnovers as well, leading his team on their way to 16 TOs overall. Hinrich's strangely has had a few notably-great performances against Golden State the past couple of seasons, though this one wasn't done on the offensive end the damned gritty one did change the game defensively.

For the first quarter it looked like the Bulls were giving themselves a chance to stink out another opponent, ending on a huge FG drought though staying close due to hitting 10/11 FTs in the quarter. But then in the middle periods the team exploded, to a combined 59-35 margin. It started with a 12-0 run in the 2nd with Taj Gibson taking it to Draymond Green, and Gibson wound up the team's high scorer with 21 points. Butler had 16 points in his return, going 5-6 from the line and hitting a 3-pointer. Dunleavy was 3-6 from three and finished with 15, and chipped in defensively with a couple of shameful (but effective! it's the Duke way) charges drawn. Boozer had 9 of his 15 points in the 3rd quarter, and finished 6-11 from the field.

Noah only had 8 points (had a bit of trouble finishing inside tonight against a pretty sizeable Warriors team) but his 17 rebounds led the Bulls to a 33% Offensive Rebound percentage (and they held the Warriors to 18%). With 7 assists, Noah would've been on triple-double watch again if he had been playing his normal minutes. This was a very rare game in that it got so out of hand (28 points early in the 4th quarter) that there was actually 5 whole minutes of deep-bench time. The Warriors starters failed early in the 3rd to even get the game a little closer (getting 14 points wasn't gonna cut it) so they got the rest of the night off too. The way they prepared for this game tonight suggests they may have taken the it off entirely.