Butler, Warriors Tag Bulls with Seventh-Straight Loss

Warriors guard Jimmy Butler finished with more points (19), rebounds (8) and assists (6) than anyone in a Bulls uniform in Sunday's 123-91 loss to the Golden State Warriors. (The Bigs / Destiny Little)

While the Chicago Bulls wait for internal development to churn out another star, their last one, Jimmy Butler, paid them a visit on Sunday.

That they’d won one fewer game in the eight seasons since deciding he wasn’t their franchise centerpiece than they did in the six seasons with him gave the reunion an ironic twist.

Butler barely breaking a sweat as the head of a Golden State Warriors team playing on the second night of a back-to-back without Steph Curry and Draymond Green only ratcheted up the cruelty of 123-91 loss.

“I think the group is a group that gets along very, very well, Billy Donovan said. “They all like each other. But until they start to love each other enough to block out and to dive on the floor, not for themselves, but for the guy next to them…we don’t have the luxury of a Jimmy Butler kinda putting the game away so to speak on a three and a couple drives and things that he did and that’s why he is who he is as a player.”

The Bulls used a 17-1 run across the third and fourth quarters to trim what had been a 24-point deficit to 87-79. The Warriors responded by scoring 24 of the next 29 points, leading Billy Donovan to bring in the two-way trio of Lachlan Olbrich, Emanuel Miller and Trentyn Flowers off the bench and essentially waving the white flag. 

Butler made three baskets during that stretch, including two threes, and finished with more points (19), rebounds (8) and assists (6) than anyone in a Bulls uniform. In all, he helped the Warriors outscore his former team in every second of the 29 minutes he logged.

In response to finding out the Bulls still haven't won as many games without him as they did with him, Butler told The Bigs: "That's a helluva stat. Wow."

"They'll figure it out. The city deserves that. I will say that. The city deserves to win, to be in the playoffs, to compete, because the atmosphere is like none other I've been around. But it's coming. It's a growing thing. When they figure it out here for this city, the fans are, for sure, gonna show up and show out."

With their seventh-straight loss, the Bulls move to 9-14 on the season and 6-5 at home. 

Josh Giddey led four Bulls in double-figure scoring with 18 points. Matas Buzelis added 16 points, three rebounds, three steals and a block. His one-handed dunk over Quinten Post in the first quarter was about the only thing — outside of the Dunkin’ Race, of course — that had the United Center in an uproar.

The Bulls lost the rebounding battle 51-38, were outscored 23-14 in second-chance points and made 11 fewer threes than the Warriors who came into the game mustering just 107.7 points per 100 possessions without Curry on the floor.

“That’s the stuff we gotta be much better at and much better at the details, Donovan said. “When you do those things what you’re basically showing to me is an enormous amount of respect for the man sitting next to you.

“Until we start to focus on the controllables that we have as a team, then this will continue.”

Rest for the Weary?

The Bulls have four days off until their next game, a tilt in Charlotte against the Hornets on Friday.

Donovan would prefer to squeeze in multiple practices during the team’s longest non-All-Star-Weekend break of the season. But given how injury bug has bitten some players and overtaxed others, he may have to settle for less.

“I think for us it’s going to really come down to the medical, Donovan said. “I definitely think we’ll have a day of practice. But how much we can actually do physically, the medical guys [coming out of Sunday] and seeing where some of these other guys are at, will give me some kind of direction.”