RED-HOT CURRY
Warriors star scores 40 as Bulls lose first game of Western road trip
SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry put on quite a show for his old college coach from Davidson.
The reigning NBA scoring champion piled up 40 points with nine 3-pointers, Draymond Green delivered another all-around effort and the Golden State Warriors beat the Bulls 119-93 on Friday night for their seventh straight win.
“It’s special,” Curry said of performing for Davidson coach Bob McKillop, whose team plays San Francisco at Chase Center on Saturday. “The schedule gods worked out somewhat in terms of they got to come to the game. Obviously, we’re going to Charlotte tomorrow so I’ll miss the Davidson-USF game, but to have Coach in the building ... it always gets me going reminding me of the journey to get here and all that went into making me the player and person I am now.”
Green added nine points, nine rebounds and seven assists after coming into the game questionable with a bruised left thigh he injured in Wednesday’s victory against the Timberwolves. Kevon Looney notched doubledigit rebounds in back-toback games for the third time in his career, grabbing 10 following a career-high 17 two nights earlier.
Golden State went 7-1 on its homestand and improved to 11-1 overall.
“We always used to have one of the best home-court advantages in the league and we want to establish that again,” Looney said. “We’ve got full capacity now and just want to give the crowd a good show.”
Andrew Wiggins added 15 points and seven rebounds and Jordan Poole had 14 points as Golden State wrapped up an eight-game homestand that matched a franchise record. The Warriors’ lone loss came in overtime to Memphis on Oct. 28.
“In general, the high point is establishing our home floor, that this is going to be a tough place to come win a game. And a lot of that is the way we’re playing, a lot of that is our fans, the energy in the building, there’s a really good vibe about the team, the fans feel it,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Great way to start the year but now we’ve got to go out on the road and it’s going to get a lot tougher. We obviously are very happy to be where we are.”
Curry crossed over and blew right by Lonzo Ball for a short jumper in the second quarter and shot 15 for 24 in his 52nd career 40-point game.
He is now the NBA’s career leader for 3-pointers in both regular season and playoffs with 3,366, passing Ray Allen (3,358).
Zach LaVine scored 23 points and DeMar DeRozan had 18 to lead the Bulls, who missed star Nikola Vucevic during his absence with COVID-19.