Bulls at Warriors
Klay Thompson set the bar ridiculously high with his NBA-record 37 third-quarter points on Friday but managed to follow that performance up in fine form as the Golden State Warriors stayed hot. Thompson will try to post his third straight game with 30 or more points when the Warriors host the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday. The Bulls looked strong in back-to-back wins over San Antonio and Dallas last week but fell at home to Miami on Sunday and are beginning a six-game trip.
Thompson “slumped” to 31 points in a win over the Boston Celtics on Sunday after matching the NBA season high with 52 on Friday and is averaging 31.8 points on 56.5 percent shooting in the last five games. The budding superstar will get a stiff test from another standout two-guard in Chicago’s Jimmy Butler, who remains strong on the defensive end even while his offense has slipped of late. Butler slumped to a season-low five points on 2-of-8 shooting in 43 minutes during Sunday’s 96-84 loss to the Heat.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, NBATV, CSN Chicago, CSN Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE BULLS (29-17): Chicago’s 16-6 road record is bested only by Golden State (15-5) and Atlanta (17-5), and the Bulls have already earned road wins against Western Conference powers Dallas, Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers. “Three games in four nights coming up,” forward Pau Gasol told reporters. “It’s going to be a challenging road trip. But this is what the league is about, challenges and see how well you do.” Gasol is averaging 16.7 rebounds over the last three games and has posted six straight double-doubles.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (36-6): Golden State has won a franchise-record 19 straight games at home but had an NBA-record streak of 11 straight home wins by at least 13 points come to an end in Sunday’s 114-111 win over the Celtics. “This is the point of the schedule when it gets really tough to get up emotionally night after night after night,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters. “It was kind of a workmanlike effort. We didn’t do anything glaringly inefficient. For the most part, we did our jobs. We just didn’t have a lot of life and legs.” One player who did show some legs was All-Star guard Stephen Curry, who cut to the basket for a rare dunk late to fire up the bench and notched his third straight game in double figures in assists with 11.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Thompson scored 24 points but F Draymond Green led the way with a career-high 31 when the Warriors picked up a 112-102 win at the Bulls on Dec. 4.
2. Chicago C Joakim Noah has totaled 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting in two games since returning from an ankle injury.
3. Golden State has won at least 11 games in three straight months for the first time since 1961-62.