CHICAGO (AP) — Stephen Curry scored 34 points and tied a season high with eight 3-pointers, Jimmy Butler added 25 points in his Golden State debut and the Warriors rallied to beat the Chicago Bulls 132-111 on Saturday night, Feb. 8.
Curry scored 24 of his points and made five threes in the third quarter as the Warriors went from trailing by 24 to leading by three.
Butler, who played his first six seasons in Chicago, made a big impact in his first game since a trade-deadline deal from Miami following a messy split with the Heat. The six-time All-Star made 11 of 13 free throws and had four assists.
Quinten Post scored 18 points and Brandin Podziemski added 16 points and seven assists.
Coby White led Chicago with 27 points and made six 3s. Jalen Smith added 15 points and matched a career high with four 3-pointers. Rookie Matas Buzelis scored 16 as the Bulls lost for the 11th time in 14 games.
Meanwhile, Jayson Tatum scored 40 points and the Boston Celtics easily handled the New York Knicks for the second time this season, winning 131-104.
Payton Pritchard added 25 points off the bench for the Celtics, who rebounded from their loss to Dallas on Thursday in an NBA Finals rematch to win for the fifth time in six games and move 2 1/2 games ahead of the Knicks for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Derrick White had 17 and combined with Tatum for all the points in a 19-3 spurt in the third quarter that broke open the only time all night it felt like a game. The Knicks, who trailed by double digits most of the night, had cut an 18-point deficit to 70-67, but by the time the run was over Boston led 89-70.
Jalen Brunson scored 36 points for the Knicks, who lost for the second time in nine games — both at home the last two Saturday nights on national TV. Josh Hart had 17.
Elsewhere, Nikola Jokic had 28 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists to just miss a triple-double before sitting out the fourth quarter and the Denver Nuggets won their season-best sixth straight game, beating the Phoenix Suns 122-105.
Jokic made 11 of 13 shots in 28 minutes. Jamal Murray had 30 points for the Nuggets, who played without starters Russell Westbrook and Michael Porter Jr., both sidelined with left hamstring injuries.
Devin Booker scored 24 points to lead Phoenix, who didn’t have injured starters Kevin Durant (sprained left ankle) or Bradley Beal (injured left big toe) for the second night in a row. Also out was Grayson Allen, who sat with an injured left knee. He made two 3-pointers in the final 4 seconds Friday night to force overtime in an eventual victory over Utah.
Bol Bol had a season-high 19 points, and Tyus Jones added 15 points and 10 assists for the Suns. They have lost four of five.
