On Thursday night, the Golden State Warriors played their first game without injured superstar Kevin Durant. It gave a hungry Chicago Bulls team a chance to strike while the Dubs were down a man, and the Windy City franchise made the best of the situation. Chicago was able to pull away from the Warriors 94-87 in the fourth quarter thanks to a solid performance from Jimmy Butler and great contribution from Bobby Portis.

Bulls' Butler and Portis were key

In tonight's NBA game on TNT, Chicago got 22 points from their NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler along with six assists, five rebounds, and four steals.

Butler was 6-of-14 from the floor and was a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe. Butler had key free throws down the stretch to help seal the win.

Power forward Bobby Portis also contributed nicely for the winning side. Portis finished with a double-double as he scored 17 points and pulled down 13 rebounds including 11 on the defensive side of the floor. The Bulls had a +21 plus-minus stat with Portis' effort in tonight's game.

As a team, the Chicago Bulls were able to win the rebounding battle 49-41 and also shot nearly 44 percent for the game compared to Golden State's cold 38.6 percent shooting.

Splash Brothers' cold shooting

The Warriors' "Splash Brothers" came out shooting cold once again, missing plenty of threes when needed most.

The duo of Curry and Thompson finished 3-for-22 from three-point range and as a team, Golden State was 6-of-30, or 20 percent shooting from three-point land. Fans are expecting that the team will have to work out some kinks as there were adjustments made once Kevin Durant became a part of this already star-studded lineup for the Warriors.

Curry still finished with 22 points, but his late attempts from downtown were off. The same was true for Thompson who finished with a subpar 13 points. Draymond Green had a solid stat line. The All-Star power forward had 12 points, seven assists, and eight rebounds to help the team effort.

Standings and what's next

With the win, the Chicago Bulls are now 31-30 on the current season.

The team sits at No. 6 in the Eastern Conference and has an identical record to the Indiana Pacers. The Detroit Pistons are just a few games behind these teams, while Miami and Milwaukee are also within a few games of climbing into the playoff picture.

Next up for the Bulls will be a Saturday night NBA game at home where they'll host the Los Angeles Clippers starting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time on ABC.

As for Golden State (50-11), they suffered their first back-to-back losses in quite some time. The Warriors get a few days of rest before they have an away game against the Knicks at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on ABC this Sunday.

The loss also helped the San Antonio Spurs (46-13) move to within three games of the Western Conference lead. The Spurs may gain even more ground on Friday as they'll take on the Pelicans in New Orleans on ESPN.
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