Warriors doomed by inconsistent play during late collapse in tough loss to Bulls
The "Warriors Postgame Live" crew break down Golden State's 130-124 overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night at Chase Center.
Warriors doomed by inconsistent play during late collapse in tough loss to Bulls originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
And we thought last night was bad.
Well, the Bulls said, "Hold my beer."
They beat the Warriors in overtime, 130 to 124.
Dubs were up 115 to 107 with 1:31 left after a 24 to four run, and they now have lost three games in a row.
They'll get two days off before taking on the Minnesota Timberwolves.
And when will this bleeding stop?
That's a tough one, folks.
Can't sugarcoat that as we welcome everybody to Toyota Warriors Postgame Live here at the Gay House at Thrive City.
The Hall of Famer Chris Mullin, NBA Champion Festus Ezeli, I am Monta Ellis.
Unbalanced offense, not getting rebounds, Bouzelas going crazy.
That's a tough one, Fezzy.
Add that one to the list.
I felt like I just said that 24 hours ago.
Yeah, as I, I look, as I look at the, the stats right now, Monta, Josh Giddey has a triple-double, 21 points, 13, 13 rebounds, 17 assists.
Wow.
Matas Bouzelas has 41 points.
That's a career high and Trey Jones off the bench has 22 points.
The Chicago Bulls scored 64 points in the paint.
Now, the, the, the scouting report coming into this game is Chicago cannot defend the paint, and so drive them, attack them, go score in the paint early.
I thought Chicago started this game off just being the aggressors.
That's Bouzelas, that's Josh Giddey, Trey Jones.
They just kept attacking the Warriors, and by the second, I think the second quarter was where the Warriors lost, kinda lost grip of that game defensively, right?
They, they, they were, were making shots.
Yep.
Chicago Bulls were making all their shots, and then down the stretch, defense brought the Warriors back into the game.
It seemed like they were about to win it, and then they made some slips there at the end and had to win the game again, and Chicago just took a hold of it in overtime.
This was one of those games where th- this is a, this is a game where you have to, you have to regroup after.
Tough loss.
Tough loss.
I mean, the Warriors had 30 assists, 20 made threes, just 12 turnovers, but if you look at the hustle points, points in the paint, 64-44, Chicago.
Second chance points, 20-16, and fast break 17-12.
And look, obviously went into overtime, and they dominate overtime.
So the Warriors I thought made some good adjustments in the second half.
They got to the paint a little bit more.
the final stats show a decent balance to their attack, but we said this pregame, a team like Chicago, you let them hang around, they get comfortable, they start feeling good about themselves- Mm-hmm and that happened all in the first half.
Yep.
The, the, you know, there was no- Second quarter no resistance.
Yep.
You have 31-21 the second quarter, 19 assists at halftime, so now you got a game, and then it gets into overtime, and they get off to a quick start.
They, they score the first four points, and, and they steal a win here at Chase Center.
Wow.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable loss for the Golden State Warriors.
They drop under 500 to 32 and 33.
They're now in, solely in ninth place, behind the LA Clippers for that eighth place, for the eighth place in the Western Conference.
And of course, the Bulls in that first half on a 17-two run to take control of the game, while the Warriors, give them credit, a monster run in the third quarter, 21 to four run.
Now we got a game in the fourth quarter.
They were down 103 to 91 with eight minutes and change left.
Steve Kerr calls a timeout, and they get rolling with a 24 to four run.
Pat Spencer with a nice layup right there, his best game in weeks, 17 points off that Warriors bench.
What a dive on the floor- He was showing 16 and good hustle.
And the hustle.
I love the trap, Fezzy, which started this run- Oh in that third quarter, but you get to the fourth quarter, GP2- How many of those did we see?
and Pat Spencer with great chemistry.
How many of those did we see tonight?
How many GP2 tip dunks did we see?
At least three.
Attack the paint is the name of the game, and right here, I And the Warriors struggled a little bit finishing around the lane of Chicago, but in the fourth quarter, I thought those steals, the attack, they just, they did exactly what you asked of them and what they should have done from the start of the game.
And you see good pressure defense, active hands, you know, getting out in transition.
They had eight paint, point paints, in the first half, 36 in the second half.
So here you go.
M- much like last night against Utah, you drive the basketball, you can score the ball pretty easily.
Now Pat Spencer here doing his thing again.
That's tough.
He, he had been in a rut.
His best game in weeks.
Again, he's attacking the paint, hit three threes, dropped six, six assists.
Only one turnover- Pat from Pat Spencer.
Then Al Horford, he can do that to a cutting GP2, who had himself a double double.
We'll get to the particulars a little bit later when it comes to that.
But GP2 again, surveying the court, surveying the floor.
Sees Okola right there.
You know what?
I don't like it.
And then look at this move by- Woo Gui Santos.
Is that the tornado?
Is it back?
That is the tornado.
The tornado- I think it's back from Gui Santos.
Shout out to Linas Kleiza.
Pat Spencer with the deep three with the shot clock winding down.
And right then and there we thought the Warriors will steal this one at Chase Center.
Deep three.
Deep three.
They're up 115 to 107 at that point, but give this Bulls team credit.
Look, they're not a playoff position.
They don't care what the stats say.
They're rebuilding.
They're supposed to be tanking.
24 to four run by the Warriors, and Bouzelas again, three of his career-high 41 points, and you see the Bulls off and running here.
It's a tough move right there.
Leonard Miller, 17 points, 11 rebounds for the Bulls.
We had no idea who he was before the game.
And that was a big miss by LJ Cryer.
Give the young man credit, though.
Cryer had a good game off the bench, 17 points, six of seven from the free throw line, but he'll think about that miss all night long.
And the Bulls, they have action here.
Fezzy and Mullin.
Tough play here by Draymond Green, a good contest, but a foul.
Tough.
A foul with 1.4 seconds left.
Oh.
Helping to stop the layup from Richards, the dive, and running out, not expecting, not expecting the big right there to be on the two-point line.
Expecting him to be on the three-point line.
Kinda just misjudged.
Oh, tough foul.
Give Jalen Smith creditHe made both those free throws to send the game to overtime.
So that's tough right there.
The Bulls claw back, down eight with 1:31 left, Feszy, and they come back and send it to overtime.
Yeah, I This is tough.
A- and any, any team like the Chicago Bulls, the Chicago Bulls have been struggling.
They've been They just lost to Sacramento last game.
Just looking for any morsel of hope, something to make you feel good on this road trip, and they came out and they played hard.
You gotta give them a lot of credit.
They played hard, they did all the little things.
They were offensive rebounding, they were getting the second chance points.
They were attacking the paint.
The things that you were asking the Warriors to do, they were doing it.
Matas Buzelis was being aggressive.
Yeah.
His length and a- athleticism, you saw it show up in different ways.
That's a young player to watch in the future.
He is really, really- Who's that?
Matas Buzelis.
Oh, yeah.
He's really developing.
He's- The future is now rolling right now.
The future for them is now.
A- and what I saw is him attacking the seams.
Every time the ball swung to his side, he was attacking and driving.
And when he got the confidence, he just stood on the three-point line and started hitting some shots.
If he starts hitting- three-point shots, that's gonna be a really dangerous player in the future.
Yeah, we all know what a great athlete he is.
you see the numbers there, phenomenal.
But his three-point shot looks pretty good.
He made five tonight.
Not a great percentage, but he looks confident.
He can play in transition, he can finish in the paint over the top.
He This kid, this kid's gonna be a star.
He, he's a big time player.
21 years old.
We saw him last season here at the All-Star break in the dunk competition.
Yeah.
And we said, "Wow, we know he's an athlete, but can he play?"
I think tonight he proved that.
16 to 28, the five made threes, six rebounds, and a career high of 41 points.
They have something special in that kid.
From the basketball hotbed of Lithuania.
Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Algirdas Sabonis,, arnas Mariulionis, some incredible basketball players from there.
He's in that great lineage of Lithuanian legends.
he's got a bright future.
He's They're gonna build, obviously we said this pre-game, build it around Buzelis and Josh Giddey.
Speaking of Josh Giddey.
Yeah.
Just Feszy mentioned at halftime- Ooh he almost had a triple double.
We said he's a triple-double threat coming in.
He's a triple-double threat, we said, coming in.
He's capable of dropping 25, 10, and 10.
Whoa.
Well, tonight he made us all look like a prophet.
21 points, 17 assists, 13 rebounds.
His 10th triple-double this season.
And Mully, you know what?
His shot is getting better and better and better.
It was one of the reasons why he was shipped out of Oklahoma City.
Well, he's starting to round into form here, and you s- could see him do that, hit that three over Kristaps Porziis.
Well, much like Buzelis, I think you prefer Josh Giddey to be on the three-point line, but he's not a terrible shooter.
But the thing is, the Sky Report, they shoot wide open threes.
You know, the defense is gonna give them those shots.
but Giddey's got that unique, speed, change of direction.
He's got great size.
He gets in the paint at will because of that size, includes his teammates.
He's got a, he's got a incredible feel for the game.
And yeah, I mean, this guy every night is, is hovering around a triple-double.
His, his size is his biggest asset.
Size and his vision, ability to score.
I mean, he had 14 points in the first half.
In addition to that, he had 10 assists.
And so you're thinking, y- you put, s- put a smaller guy on him so to stop him from moving and, and really attacking the paint.
They put guys like Will Richard on him.
Will Richard I thought did a good job on him defensively.
Mm-hmm.
Problem is, he's getting his teammates involved.
He has multiple ways to get going in the game, and I thought he did a great job of creating shots for his teammates, open shots.
And I Josh Giddey, he didn't get traded to Chicago because he couldn't fit.
He got traded because they have so much talent.
This is what they traded away.
Like, think about how OKC, how much OKC is stacked.
So he's coming in here, he's gonna be a key piece that this team tries to build around.
And OKC had to pay some other guys too.
They had to pay.
But you know, a lot of times with back court players, you, you really fear their speed, but because of his size and his good feel for the game, he gets where he wants to go.
Yep.
You know, you can You know, he's not the most gift- gifted athletically, but he gets to wherever he wants to go on that floor.
It was weird how his tenure ended in OKC, however, because Dallas in that series in the second round sagged off of Josh Giddey, kind of played him off the floor.
They had Jalen Williams up and coming, Chet Holmgren obviously, and they went with the big, and Hartenstein made that choice.
Worked out for OKC.
But you know what?
Josh Giddey is showing that he's a talented player.
Yeah, but when you can do so many other things, his game is not based on three-point shooting, and in turn he Every time he shoots a three, it seems like he's wide open, 'cause that's what the defense is giving him, much like Buzelis.
If these guys can start knocking that down consistently, they're two, big time building blocks.
You gotta also think back to that series, they also sagged off of SGA.
Yep.
And so both guys on the floor at the same time shrunk the floor.
Good point.
SGA now is shooting threes, four game winners, like multiple threes.
So improvement on his part- Yeah but also improvement on Josh Giddey's part.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's talk about some of the Warriors here in this tough loss to the Chicago Bulls, 130 to 124 in overtime.
Obviously we've been waiting to see Kristaps Porziis.
This was the third game he's played since the trade when the Warriors sent Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga down to Atlanta.
You know what?
He was moving a lot better, especially in that first half.
17 points, two made threes, four rebounds and two assists.
He played over 20 minutes, Mully.
20 minutes, very encouraging play by Porziis tonight.
Ooh, good block.
And I can't emphasize enough how important Porziis is moving forward.
This changes everything.
Not the same impact, but similar to the addition of Jimmy Butler, because the better Porziis plays, the more he can play, it's gonna m- make Steph Curry's return that much more impactful.
So this is a huge, game for Porziis, being able to play 20 minutes.
Like you said, about the He looked pretty good.
Something to build on.
but to me, this is the biggest, th- thing moving forward for the Warriors is his availability and how well he can play.
Four blocked shots today, it's the most any Warriors had this season, Feszy.
Ooh.
A size advantage that the Warriors desperately needKristaps Porziis, you can see the moments, you can see exactly what the Warriors are gonna get.
His ability to block shots, defend the rim.
He's 7'2" and they call him The Unicorn, his nickname is that because of his ability to affect both sides of the floor.
Offensively, you saw him shooting from, like, three steps behind the three-point line.
If you have him doing this and Steph doing that, that's gonna be tough.
But what I wanna see moving forward is more i- intentional feeding the post with Kristaps Porziis right there.
Posting up, making plays off the post.
He's only just knucking some rust off.
This is his third, third game this season- Third game with the Warriors.
So he is now coming back from his injury, from his absence.
He's gonna get back into the flow.
This is the Warriors' challenge right now.
Now you have guys who've been playing well, now you have to ha- now start mixing the new guys who are coming back healthy.
Seth Curry's coming back, Kristaps is coming back, and Set- and Steph is gonna come back soon.
So with all these guys coming back, there's a new form that the Warriors are gonna have to take.
Well, what do you do with LJ Cryer?
He's putting his name in the hat.
17 points off the bench for the Golden State Warriors.
4-7 from the floor, made some huge threes, like he's done on that road trip, that three game trip here.
And you see the 6'7" for the free throw line.
He's gonna, like I mentioned earlier in the segment, he's gonna be awake all night- And he made, he made- thinking about that missed free throw two clutch free throws before that miss.
He did.
Then he went one of two, it's tough.
He had a great game.
Great game, no doubt.
Don't wanna damper his night, but he will think about that missed free throw- No question because of the competitor that he is.
But the University of Houston product, this started against the Rockets when he had a huge game there.
this guy can obviously shoot the basketball, but I'm impressed with his ability to get into the paint and finish, and his one-on-one defense.
He's, he's an NBA player.
Yeah.
He's gonna be a really good player moving forward, and he's still coming off that hamstring injury.
I think he's only gonna get better moving forward.
And even Draymond said it.
When he came back, they, they knew the talent that they had in this guy, and he says it's, we've kind of been waiting for him to get on the floor.
He can score in bunches, and for being as small as he is- Yeah he's one of those guys, too, that can finish over the giants in the middle of the paint.
Very impressive game from him.
Big buckets all needed, because the bench was really what spurred this comeback.
That's LJ Cryer, that's GP2.
I mean, you had this line-up with, with, Will Richard, Gyi Santos, uh- GP2 GP2.
You had, Al Horford.
I thought they made a huge run down the stretch.
The bench was, was huge for the Warriors.
65-37 bench points for the Warriors.
17 for Cryer, Porziis and Spencer, and GP2 with 12.
It was an incredible performance by the bench.
And think about that, a two-way guy in LJ Cryer who just came up to the big league club, and he's calling for the ball in crunch time to shoot those free throws.
But a tough one for the Golden State Warriors.
They lose their third in a row.
Yeah, this is not pretty, folks.
Back to back losses to the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls.
They now fall under 500 on the season.
We'll hear from Steve Kerr on the other side.
