On the night of Jan. 14, the Chicago Bulls and second-year head coach Billy Donovan will be set to take on just one of the “Splash Brothers”, despite one of their return to the rotation from a lengthy absence last week. The Warriors will be looking to give some rest to the five-time All-Star shooting guard/small forward Klay Thompson in the back end of back-to-back games.
It will be a bit disappointing for Bulls fans to not get to see Thompson back on the floor with the Warriors and superstar point guard Stephen Curry after he missed so much time due to various major injuries. But it is understandable that it will take some time for Thompson to get back in the mix at full strength for the Warriors.
This is a busy road trip for the Warriors that comes against two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. It is not easy for the Warriors to hit the road to face the Milwaukee Bucks and the Bulls on back-to-back nights.
Warriors will take on the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 14 without Klay Thompson
With the restriction that Thompson is on, it was known that he would be out against either the Bucks or Bulls depending on whether he was listed on the injury report earlier this week.
Klay Thompson is not on the Warriors’ injury report tomorrow in Milwaukee, indicating that he will play against the Bucks and rest on Friday night in Chicago against the Bulls.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 12, 2022
Thompson did get off to a pretty productive start in his first two games back since the 2019-20 season with the Warriors. He averaged around 16 points per game, three rebounds, two assists, no steals, and one block while shooting around 39 percent from the field, 39 percent from beyond the arc, and 100 percent from the free-throw line in his first two games back this week.
He did slow down a bit, though, in the Warriors’ double-digit loss to the Bucks on this night. The Bucks did take down the Warriors by the final score of 118-99 on the night of Jan. 13 just before Golden State travels to Chicago to take on the Bulls heading into the weekend.
The Bulls will be looking to bounce back from their bad double-digit loss to the Warriors earlier this season in the first of two meetings between these two teams. Donovan and the Bulls also need to rebound in a big way after how bad they looked in the second half in a loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Jan. 12.