After opening the season with four of six games at home, five of which were against teams that didn't make the playoffs last season, the Warriors have not gotten many gifts from the NBA schedule-maker. Less than a month has passed since the soft season-opening stretch, a span during which the Warriors have endured a five-game Eastern swing, a Texas two-step and now a second five-game journey through the Eastern Conference. They had five sets of back-to-backs in their first 17 games. A sixth concludes Saturday night after Friday's loss in Chicago. And, oh, they didn't just fall easy in the Windy City. They took the Bulls to overtime before coming up just short.
As you might imagine, the second night of back-to-backs has not been kind to the short-handed Warriors club. They've lost four in a row, with an 18.3 average margin of defeat in their last three defeats.
Will Saturday be any different? Logic says no. The Warriors played only eight guys in Friday's 53-minute contest. Anthony Morrow sat out only four minutes, Monta Ellis seven.
The Warriors can look forward to an off day Sunday and a trip-ending matchup with a staggering 76ers team Monday. Saturday's game can't end soon enough.
BULLS 96, WARRIORS 91 (OT): The last thing the Warriors needed Friday night was to play an overtime game in their third game of a five-day trip. And in fact, it almost didn't happen. But Monta Ellis missed twice in the final 32 seconds of regulation, both with a chance to give Golden State the lead. Predictably, a cold-shooting team got even colder in the extra five minutes, missing eight of nine shots after Ellis opened the period with a jumper. Four points in five minutes weren't enough. Ellis led Golden State with 27 points, shooting 10-for-26 from the field.
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