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Tip off: 5:00PM PSTWhere: United Center - Chicago ILBlog Buddy: Blog a Bull
What an emotional roller coaster of a week for Warrior fans and players. We kicked it off with the heated final battle against the #2 team in the league, our burgeoning dastardly rivals, the LA Clippers. Warriors win. We followed that up with a rocking home game against the #1 team in the league, OKC. Warriors win. And then yesterday's NBA All Star news, in which we found out that the Curse of Spree has finally come to an end. Warriors... win?
As great as it is for David Lee to make the All Star game — a deserving reward for a player who's consistently contributed to winning basketball all season — our own MVP, Stephen Curry, was undoubtedly snubbed. A week that could have gone down as one of the best, most exciting weeks in recent Golden State history... well, I guess it still was. I'm obviously just bitter about the snub.
There's still time left in the week for a spoonful of sugar, and today's road match against the Chicago Bulls is the first chance for Steph Curry to unleash a barrage of eff-you threes against a coach who he can imagine didn't vote for him.
Not the easiest task, unfortunately. The Bulls are #1 in both opponent's three pointers attempted and three pointers made, and are fifth in the NBA in opponent three point percentage (33.3%). Since taking over as head coach of the Bulls, Tom Thibodeau, that same jerk who obviously didn't vote for Steph, has had his team playing great defense, and their containment of three point shooters has been a big factor.
The Bulls have also got excellent interior defenders to give All Star David Lee trouble. Although defensive menace Omer Asik is blossoming down in Houston, Chicago still has Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson, both excellent defenders in their own right.
But as we've seen time and again, the Warriors aren't bad defensively either. And while GSW's offense is going to have to work hard to get good shots, the Bulls' offense is near the bottom of the league, ranked 24th in eFG at 46.7%.
In summary: you have a great defensive/poor offensive team, going up against a good defensive/good offensive team. In further summary: if you're looking for the fireworks we just experienced against the Clips and Thunder, I hope those games are still on your DVR.
But gone is any notion of foreboding heading into a tough matchup. This Warriors team can beat anybody, and not in the any-given-Sunday, Lady Luck kinda way — they're just good, and they can beat other good teams by being better.
And it starts with Stephen Curry, raining threes down upon those who slighted him.