Column: Steph Curry's Jordanesque night takes a bit of the sting out of an epic Chicago Bulls' collapse

Chicago Tribune

10-02-2025

The Chicago Bulls were off Super Bowl Sunday, free to watch the game, do some shopping or just rest up for Tuesday's home game against the Detroit Pistons.
When last seen Saturday night, several Bulls players were soaking their feet in ice in the locker room, while others were working out or relaxing in a tub. They had just experienced a collapse that had stunned even veteran NBA observers, turning a 24-point third-quarter lead over Golden State into a 25-point deficit in an eventual 132-11 loss.
The United Center crowd of 21,297, many of whom were wearing Steph Curry jerseys and unabashedly rooting for the Warriors, left the building en masse after Curry was removed with just under 4 minutes remaining.
Curry, who turns 37 next month, put on a show that none of them would forget, scoring 24 third-quarter points to ignite the comeback and hitting 8 of 16 3's on a 34-point night.
'It was like an avalanche in everything,' Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. 'It was the free throws, the rebounding, the turnovers and just the fact that (Curry) got really hot.'
Curry wasn't the only factor. Bulls center Nikola Vučević said the Warriors simply 'bullied us and took away the game' in the third quarter, in which the Bulls were outscored 42-25, and into the fourth.
Whatever the reason, it was worth the price of admission for those who just enjoy watching greatness on display. Bulls fans haven't seen much of it from their own team over the past decade or so, and are unlikely to see much the rest of the season under executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas' undecipherable 30-game plan.
Oh well. At least Karnišovas' kept Vučević, who told the Tribune's Julia Poe recently he'd 'like to be somewhere that's in win-now mode.' That would suggest a city not named Chicago.
If things had turned out differently, Vučević might have been on the other side of Saturday's matchup, helping the Warriors' playoff push instead of playing out the string with the Bulls. When I asked him after the loss if he was disappointed in staying or OK with the decision, Vučević gave an unconvincing answer.
'I'm fine,' he said. 'It is what it is at this point.'
Vučević said he would remain 'focused' on helping the team win in its remaining games, which could be difficult with Donovan's goal of developing the young players. The loss of the team's leader and top scorer, Zach LaVine, adds to the degree of difficulty.
Vučević will always be the proverbial good soldier, but Karnišovas did the 14-year veteran no favor by failing to find him a landing spot. Hopefully he'll try harder in the offseason so Vučević can have a realistic shot at competing for a title. The Bulls owe him that much.
Photos: Golden State Warriors 132, Chicago Bulls 111
The Bulls are now 0-1 in the 30-game plan— the season-ending stretch run for Karnišovas and Donovan to evaluate what they have and which direction they'll head in next summer. They fell to 22-32 with Saturday's loss while remaining in the dreaded No Man's Land, somewhere between Play-In contention and positioning for the draft lottery.
It's nowhere anyone in the NBA wants to be, but a place Karnišovas seemingly has a down payment on as architect of the Bulls.
Life moves on, and with the end of the NFL season on Sunday and the start of MLB spring training in Arizona and Florida, the NBA takes center stage for the rest of the winter. What kind of madness will ensue?
The recent trade deadline developments that saw superstars Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis trade places, LaVine go from the Bulls to Sacramento, and Jimmy Butler force a trade from Miami to the Warriors makes the Western Conference race a high-stakes drama worthy of binge-watching.
Some insist regular-season NBA games are meaningless since 20 teams make the postseason and it's basically 5½ months of positioning for seeding. Some believe the 3-point shot is ruining the game, taking away the great inside battles for the sake of analytics. And some fans are turned off by superstars like Butler, James Harden and Joel Embiid, who seemingly can't find happiness despite fame, fortune and millions of Instagram followers.
All of those are valid arguments.
But Saturday night's epic Golden State comeback, led by Curry, the true successor to Michael Jordan in terms of popularity, was further evidence the NBA is just fine. That Curry did it in Jordan's old stomping grounds — with Butler making a sensational debut in a No. 10 jersey and Draymond Green on his Draymondiest behavior — made the night even more memorable.
Even Bulls fans who came out to see how the new roster additions would fare in their debuts were no doubt left satisfied by Curry's explosive second-half display. It was a Jordanesque performance that reminded us of how much we miss M.J. in Chicago, even after all these years away.
'You're talking about a killer, you're talking about a lion, somebody that wants to win that's going for the kill every time,' Butler said of Curry. 'That's who he is, who he has been for a very long time. I'm grateful to be his teammate and ride alongside him.'
It figures to be an interesting ride down the stretch for Curry, Butler and Green — the NBA's version of the Over The Hill Gang. The NBA needs the Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers to make playoff runs because of the global appeal of Curry, Doncic and LeBron James.
The Bulls, meanwhile, hope to regroup on Tuesday in the first of back-to-back home games against the Pistons.
It is, naturally, what it is.