With three straight victories to follow up their thrashing of the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, Stephen Curry and company had a fantastic chance to gain ground in a fierce battle for sixth place in the Western Conference. With a few minutes remaining in the fourth quarter on Thursday, the Golden State Warriors led the Chicago Bulls by two, appearing to be on their way to a hard-fought triumph over a weaker foe. With 3:51 remaining, Curry twisted his right ankle and left the game, preventing him from helping his team shut out the Bulls.
What a waste of those three victories in a row. Curry was being assessed by team trainers during the game’s most crucial minutes, but with less than a minute left, DeMar DeRozan scored five straight points to lead the Bulls to a thrilling 125-122 victory at Chase Center.
“DeMar is one of the great closers in the game. He has been for 10 years,” Steve Kerr said. “It’s great experience for all of our young guys. JK and BP were in the pick-and-roll exchange, so it’s good for them to feel this. Moses, too, to feel these big situations.”
Shooting disparity doomed Warriors before Stephen Curry’s injury
Curry never had it going on Wednesday, even before he twisted his ankle, so there’s little doubt that the outcome would have been different had he been able to complete the game. Curry was severely outplayed by Alex Caruso and Ayo Dosunmu from the first tip, finishing with 15 points and just one assist on 5-of-18 from the field and 3-of-12 from beyond the arc.
Golden State’s shooting woes continued across the lineup as they only made 11 of 42 shots from beyond the arc, or 26.1%, of the total. Adding to the problems? Chicago frequently produced solid looks after DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, who both scored 33 points, drew extra defenders, forcing the Dubs into multiple defensive rotations. Chicago drained 16 triples on 44 tries.
“Key to the game for me was kind of late third, they went on that run, made a ton of threes. For the game they made 16 threes to our 11,” Kerr said. “These days in the NBA it’s tough to win when you make five fewer threes than your opponent.”
Curry’s availability for Saturday’s first game of a home-and-home matchup with the San Antonio Spurs remains questionable. If he decided to sit on the sidelines at Chase Center alongside Victor Wembanyama—who is nursing his own sprained ankle—that wouldn’t be shocking at all.
In any case, Kerr isn’t worried about what can only be described as an incredibly disappointing home defeat to a sub-.500 team that was without several starters. He isn’t even concerned about the wasted opportunity to climb the standings.
“Like I said, I’ve got no problem with our effort, execution. We just got out-played. Chicago was great. They’ve been playing well,” he said. “Watching them on tape coming into this game, I was pretty worried just because you could see the force that they were playing with, and the confidence. They came in and earned it.”
