CHICAGO — With Kevin Durant now in Brooklyn, Draymoind Green nursing an injury and Klay Thompson still rounding back to form, Golden State isn’t exactly looking like “The Greatest Show On Earth” that they were once vaunted for.
But make no mistake, these current Warriors are still a very, very good show.
And they flexed that familiar might with a 138-96 thrashing of the Chicago Bulls on Friday night before a sold-out crowd of 21, 174 at the United Center.
After going to work early, jumping to a quick 37-28 first quarter lead, the Warriors turned up the volume in the second quarter and raced to a 78-37 halftime advantage.
And that was all she wrote for the Bulls, who shot just 37-of-87 from the field (42.5 percent) and trailed by as many as 42 points.
“We came out pretty determined,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr as he unleashed an offense that saw six of his players score in double figures led by 19-year old rookie Jonathan Kuminga’s 25 and 22 from veteran Jordan Poole. Andrew Wiggins chipped in 22 and Stephy Curry went 4-of-10 from long distance to finish with 19.
Coby White led the Bulls resistance with 20 points. Nicola Vucevic had19 and DeMar DeRozan accounted for 17 points and 7 boards. Zach LaVine was held scoreless and played only 4 minutes after feeling some discomfort on his left knee while grabbing a rebound.
While their offense showed some fight, the Bulls defense was lackluster and allowed the Warriors to hit 53 of 94 shots (56.4 percent) and 19 of 42 from 3 (45.2 percent).
