Chicago Bulls: Stephen Curry exposes gap in perimeter defense

I will be the first to admit that I was wrong about the Golden State Warriors superstar point guard Stephen Curry being able to go up against the Chicago Bulls‘ defensive backcourt in a key meeting in the Bay Area on the night of Nov. 12. Curry and the Warriors decimated second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Bulls in front of a national television audience on ESPN heading into this weekend.

Donovan and the Bulls fell short to head coach Steve Kerr and the Warriors on the road at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Nov. 12 by the convincing final score of 119-93. This game saw the Bulls reverse course on the trend they were establishing following two straight solid wins over the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets earlier this week.

This was also not the way that Donovan and the Bulls wanted to start out this mini Western Conference road trip heading into the weekend.

Yet, the Bulls got off to a good start in this road meeting with the Warriors. It really looked like star shooting guard Zach LaVine was going to help this team power through the absence of two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic, who is out for at least 10 days in all likelihood due to the league’s health and safety protocol.

That didn’t hold true, though. Curry and the Warriors would bounce back from a 29-23 first-quarter deficit by going on a really special run in the second and third quarters. The Warriors would outscore the Bulls by a whopping 30 points in the middle two-dozen minutes in this game.

The Bulls couldn’t get much of anything going after the first quarter, with the duo of LaVine and star shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan getting completely shut down to round out the game. LaVine turned the ball over a whopping seven times, with no assists. And DeRozan shot around just 30 percent from the field.

Any night where the Bulls see that poor of production from the duo of LaVine and DeRozan, and Vucevic is out, it is going to be incredibly difficult for this team to win games.

Stephen Curry decimating Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso exposes Chicago Bulls’ perimeter defense

The struggles of DeRozan and LaVine were compounded by the fact that Curry absolutely lit up the Bulls perimeter defense in the final three-quarters of the game. He was often matched up with either Lonzo Ball or Alex Caruso. And Kerr was able to scheme up Curry to get open around screens and make the shots happen that he wanted to, whenever he wanted to.

Despite a team-high six turnovers in this game, Curry was really good for the Warriors. He registered a game-high 18.4 box plus/minus, 125 offensive rating, and a sparkling 81.8 true shooting percentage.

If the Bulls wanted to win this game, the perimeter defense couldn’t let that happen. It looked like the Bulls had more than enough solid perimeter defenders to deal with Curry between the trio of Lonzo, Caruso, and lengthy two-guard Javonte Green.

But the Bulls weren’t able to get it done against Curry, who was a +31 on the night with a game-high 40 points. He shot 15-of-24 from the field, 9-of-17 from beyond the arc, and hit his one attempt from the free-throw line. That went along with four rebounds, five assists, one steal, and one block on the night.

Meanwhile, we saw Lonzo and Caruso both have defensive ratings of at least 120 (which is obviously not usual for them). They were also a combined -34 on the night.

Lonzo did at least hold is own against Steph a bit better than Caruso did. According to NBA stat tracking, Steph registered three assists and three turnovers when Lonzo was defending him. He also shot around 56 percent from the field and 33 percent from beyond the arc against Lonzo.

On the other hand, Steph shot an impressive 75 percent from the field and 75 percent from beyond the arc when Caruso was matched up with him.

The perimeter defense here was problematic for the Bulls. The fact that two of the Bulls’ best defenders were lit up by Curry could be an issue that arises in the future. But this was also a problem compounded by a lack of active wing defense off-ball on this night. The Bulls weren’t getting the help defense they needed at the three and the four, resulting in a tough night for the duo of Lonzo and Caruso on the perimeter.

LaVine and DeRozan both defended poorly on the night, allowing field goal shooting percentages north of 50 percent each way. That made it tough on Caruso and Lonzo to make up for the lapses they had on the perimeter/wing on defense.

Nonetheless, this Bulls’ team still remains near the top of the Eastern Conference standings despite this convincing loss at the hands of Steph and the Warriors on Nov. 12. Next up for the Bulls is a meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers on the road on Nov. 14.