Bulls Fall to the Small Ball Maul

The hot hands of Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis wear down the Bulls down the stretch to give Golden State its 16th home win of the season.

The first quarter started out fast, with both teams pushing speed and transition to exchange baskets. The Bulls bigs’ in Kurt Thomas and Carlos Boozer were able to take advantage of Golden State’s Davis Lee early on. By the end of the first quarter, the Warriors adjusted to a faster frontcourt by going small, leaving Taj Gibson to fall into place to match the speed game, and forcing Coach Tom Thibodeau to play small for most of the night.

The Bulls managed to keep an advantage until the late 2nd quarter, where the Bulls could not put together a streak of their own after giving up a 12 point lead starting with a Carlos Boozer technical foul. The Warriors were able to take advantage of fast break points, lead by Monta Ellis’s 4 steals, and precision baseball passing from Dorell Wright and David Lee.

Going into the 4th quarter, the score was 72 to 73 in favor of the Warriors. After a Carlos Boozer mid-range jumper only a minute into the 4th, the Bulls split their free-throws on nearly all trips to the charity stripe to allow Golden State to slowly build their lead, and hang on for the rest of the game.

Monta Ellis scored 33 to lead all scores. Carlos Boozer scores 21(10 reb and 5 ast) to lead all Bulls in a 101 to 90 loss in Oakland. Derrick Rose added 14 points on 40% shooting and 10 assists, but gave up 9 turnovers.

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