Bulls loss was no moral victory
When my wife, Trish, played basketball at Northwestern, the Wildcats snapped Auburn's 68-game home winning streak, which was the longest in NCAA women's history at the time.
Auburn coach Joe Ciampi, the story goes, responded by making his players write letters of apology to all the former Tigers who helped build the streak. Sorry for ruining your piece of history.
With that in mind, the Bulls faded down the stretch late Friday night and lost to undefeated Golden State 106-94.
Should the current Chicago Bulls write to their 1995-96 forefathers and apologize for not slowing down the Warriors' drive to 73 wins?
That's a decision coach Fred Hoiberg will have to make. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Bill Wennington, Dickey Simpkins - check your text messages.
It might be appropriate, though, to leave Warriors coach Steve Kerr, currently on leave of absence while recovering from two back surgeries, off the distribution list.
Inside the visitors' locker room at Oracle Arena, the Bulls talked about having pride in playing well. But they had a chance to hand Golden State its first loss of the season. Kirk Hinrich's 3-pointer with 5:43 left tied the score at 89-89.
That's when the Bulls' offense settled into another one of its late-game slumps. Steph Curry hit an open 3-pointer after the Bulls couldn't snag a long rebound, then got loose for a cutting lay-in to put the home team up by 5.
The Bulls still were within 96-92 after a Jimmy Butler free throw with 1:38 remaining. Consecutive 3-pointers by Harrison Barnes, Doug McDermott's high school teammate, put the game away.
The Warriors' regular-season home winning streak reached 26.
"First of all, I thought we really competed," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg told reporters after the game. "We battled, battled them the whole game. They made a couple of big plays down the stretch.
"We couldn't get it back on the other end. But if we battle like that we're going to win a lot of basketball games this year."
Yeah, the Warriors are rolling these days, but if the Bulls are truly a championship contender, a 12-point loss shouldn't feel like a moral victory.
Derrick Rose missed his second game with a sprained left ankle. He might have helped with the late-game scoring, but Kirk Hinrich turned in a vintage effort, scoring 17 points and making Curry work hard to reach 27 points.
The league's top scorer went 3-for-11 from 3-point range.
"We wanted to hold them to 10 threes or under. We did it (the Warriors were 10-for-29)," Hoiberg said. "We took care of the ball. We didn't give them a lot of run outs off turnovers, and that was a big goal of ours as well.
"We didn't attack well enough down the stretch. But again, you play with that kind of effort we're going to be fine."
Butler rose to the occasion well, finishing with 28 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals. He spent much of the game guarding Warriors power forward Draymond Green.
Hinrich usually did his best to pester Curry, and if Green set a screen, Butler would take over. After the game, Butler offered a backhanded compliment for the 34-year-old Hinrich.
"If Kirk can do it at almost 40 years old I think the young guys can do it," Butler said, according to bulls.com.
Nikola Mirotic had his best game in a couple of weeks, finishing with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The Bulls got just 15 points off the bench, while Tony Snell struggled to make any positive contributions.
The Bulls will stay in San Francisco for a few days before the circus road trip resumes Tuesday in Portland. There's a chance Rose will be ready to face the Blazers, but the Bulls still have some things to figure out.
"(The effort has) been really good, and that's what got us 4 straight wins, is playing with that type of effort," Hoiberg said after the game. "Again, we had it tonight.
"We were right there down the stretch. We just didn't make the necessary plays to get us over the hump and win the game. If we can keep that consistent we're going to be a good team."
• Get the latest Bulls news via Twitter by following @McGrawDHBulls.