Bell chimes in, Bulls blown out
Rookie shows Chicago what it’s missing in his first start with a well-rounded performance
OAKLAND >> As he was introduced as part of the starting lineup Friday night, Warriors rookie Jordan Bell rubbed his fingers together to make the familiar sign for money. Bell did so while looking in the direction of the Chicago Bulls bench.
“I wanted to see if ‘cash consideration’ was playing over there,” Bell said after the game.
Bell explained all this after the Warriors hammered the Bulls 143-94 at Oracle Arena. It was a confession of sorts: As a matter of fact, he really did want to stick it to Chicago after the Bulls drafted and immediately shipped him off to the Warriors in exchange for $3.5 million in cash considerations.
Even Friday morning, Bell was insisting he had no hard feelings.
But he got plenty of bang for his buck Friday night. Subbing
for Draymond “Money” Green, who got the night off as a scheduled breather, Bell had six blocks, seven points, six rebounds and four assists.
Bell became the first player to get at least six blocks in his first start since DeAndre Jordan in January 2009.
Was it special for Bell to do it against Chicago?
“Uh ... yeah. I’m not going to lie. It was,” Bell said. “At first, I was coming to the game not even thinking about it. But then everybody kept remind me about it today.”
The reminders even came from the otherwise mildmannered Klay Thompson, who prodded Bell by saying, “They don’t want you, JB!”
It was easy for the Warriors to laugh after this one, as they shot 58.2 percent from the field and cruised behind Stephen Curry (33 points) and Klay Thompson (29 points).
But there was also a serious matter at hand. Kevin Durant sat out the game with a sore ankle and his status is questionable for Saturday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Durant sprained the ankle last Saturday against the Philadelphia 76ers and played through it days later against his old team, Oklahoma City — much to Kerr’s regret.
“We probably shouldn’t have played him Wednesday,” the coach said. “We thought he was fine . ... But then he got sore afterwards.
“I’m sure the league is happy with us because we played him in their marquee game with Russell Westbrook and all that stuff. But (Durant) came out sore the next day. So we shouldn’t have played him.”
The Warriors got by shorthanded against the Bulls, thanks in part to Curry finding his groove in the second quarter, when the Warriors outscored the Bulls 36-13.
“The were getting whatever they wanted,’’ Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg lamented. “You’ve got to find a way to fight through that. If we don’t learn that soon, we’re going to keep getting our (expletive) kicked.”
Curry celebrated one driving lay-up by flexing his biceps as a tribute to Green, who does the same thing.
But it was really Bell who did the best Green imitation. The hammered home an alley-oop pass from Zaza Pachulia early in the first quarter. And, in the game’s best defensive play, Bell chased down Denzel Valentine on a breakaway to block a lefthanded shot with panache.
“I’ve been wanting to get him active and play him anyway. But with Draymond out, it was a pretty easy choice,” Kerr said of Bell before the game.
Green will be back in the lineup Saturday when the Warriors (14-5) host Pelicans (11-8). He sat out this time only because Kerr is already looking ahead to the postseason.