Bulls vs. Warriors injury report, game preview, lineups

[Thanks to Walker for today’s game preview -yfbb]

Game 53: Bulls (26-26) @ Warriors (43-8)

Game Info: 9:30 on ESPN

Injury Report:

Bulls:

Jimmy Butler—Out tonight with a heel injury

Christiano Felicio—Out with a foot injury

Dwyane Wade—Questionable due to illness

Warriors:

Zaza Pachulia—Out with a shoulder injury

David West—Out with a thumb injury

Game Preview:

Tonight the Bulls travel to Oracle Arena to face off with the Golden State Warriors, who hold the leagues best record at 43-8. The Bulls will be without Jimmy Butler and possibly Dwyane Wade, although it looks like him playing is likely. The Warriors made the biggest move of last year by signing Kevin Durant, and they have been a four headed monster all year long. The Warriors should have all of those four back tonight, as Klay Thompson returns after missing prior game for personal reasons.

The Bulls with Butler would’ve had a hard time slowing down the Warriors, but without him it’s impossible. Golden State will look to Curry and Durant to lead them to their 44th victory. The Bulls need superhuman efforts from Wade and some body else offensively in order to win this game. Durant is a bonafide superstar and is in the running for MVP, Curry is catching fire turning back into the scorer that other teams fear, and the bench is actually producing decent numbers.

Offensively, I think that the Bulls have to put up close to 120 in order to win this game. Wade got hot last game and I expect him to keep it going and put up some big numbers. Other than Wade I can’t see anyone for Chicago putting up enough numbers offensively to get Chicago this win.

Prediction:

In a race to 115, Golden State gets there a lot faster than Chicago and wins this one pretty handily. The clear advantage is Curry and I expect him to go for 32-35 in this game tonight.

Betting Line—Warriors by 16.5

My Pick—Warriors by 19