There were likely very few people picking the young and banged up Chicago Bulls to beat the defending champion Golden State Warriors Monday night in Chicago. If there were any, then their bold prediction was for not. The 149-124 final score was not necessarily the main topic of conversation, what was is what happened in the first half alone, and Klay Thompson.
92 of those 149 points by the Warriors were scored in the first half of the game.
The Bulls overall put together a nice performance offensively as there were well on pace for over 100 points in the game, but being down at the half with the opposition scoring 92 essentially meant the game was in the books. As for Klay Thompson, he drilled 14 three-point shots on 24 attempts which is an NBA record. He totaled 52 points in 26 minutes as he, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant did not play in the fourth quarter. A historic night in the NBA record books, but not one the Chicago Bulls would like to remember.
From a Bulls perspective, it is bad
It probably did not feel good for the Bulls players on the court hearing the capacity crowd at the United Center cheer louder for Klay Thompson's record-breaking bucket than for them.
Getting torched by that score is bad enough. This Bulls team is very banged up without young star Lauri Marrkanen, Kris Dunn, Denzel Valentine or Bobby Portis and the Warriors were going to win handily regardless, but this was brutal. No defense what so ever way played and guys like Thompson and Curry were either getting wide open or just jogging on by defenders with little to no effort to stop them. A criticism of the team since season's beginning.
In the end, nobody on the team looks good - not the players and certainly not head coach Fred Hoiberg, who is getting some heat after this loss. One could imagine if the Warriors had their starters in the entire time what the score would be like in the end.
Hoiberg feeling some heat
During losses like these, head coaches always are right in the fray on criticism. They may not be on the floor, but they coach them on the floor and teach them what to do in situations. The lack of defense and no aggressiveness from the Bulls on the floor on the Warriors as they made shot after shot is something that has people asking questions. Stephen A. Smith on ESPN First Take called Hoiberg's coaching on Monday "An atrocity," yelling that he should have done "something" to Thompson and the Warriors.
Hoiberg acknowledged that his team got beat terribly and clearly was not happy in the postgame presser. "It's pretty simple Sam, we got our ass kicked," a disgruntled Hoiberg said to NBA writer Sam Smith.
Where was the emotion on the court, many ask. Why did he not do what Stephen A. Smith begged for the day after, "something"? Fred Hoiberg's place as an NBA head coach, after being a very successful college coach, has been met with mixed feelings since day one of his Bulls tenure. This seems to add more questions than answers moving forward.