Butler, Bulls blast past Suns

The Golden State Warriors stretched their flawless record to 14-0 on Friday with a hard-fought 106-94 victory over the Chicago Bulls in Oakland that left them one win away from matching the best start to an National Basketball Association season. He walked off the court on his own just two plays after he tweaked the ankle on a foul by Monta Ellis.

After going through a practice Sunday, it appears Derrick Rose will be available for Tuesday’s game in Portland after missing the last two with a left ankle sprain, saying “that’s what we’re aiming for”.

Rose is averaging 13.6 points on 37.7 percent shooting.

The Phoenix Suns played an exciting game against a Chicago Bulls team that got major contributions from their backup point guards and their All-Star Jimmy Butler, who poured in 32 points. “I just wanted to take my shoe off”, Butler said. Rose has spoken about diverting more to Butler, particularly as his double vision remains, but with a match-up looming against another top flight point guard, will he play the team game, or will he look to dominate his Adidas counterpart on his home floor?

“If it wasn’t this injury or if it was something else, I would have played”, Rose told reporters at shootaround in San Francisco.

After his 31 point effort against the Suns, Jimmy Butler says he wants the chance to guard the defending MVP and will ask head coach Fred Hoiberg for that opportunity. But if Butler’s the Bulls’ best player, maybe we learned more about the Suns than we think. They said to be aggressive and take the shots I think I can make. After playing just a total of 61 games in the past three seasons, Rose returned this year as less of the superhero and more of the sidekick. “He was guarding their best player, I tried to take him out, he wouldn’t let me”.

He didn’t dominate the ball, but he affected the game all over the place: 28 points, nine rebounds, seven assists.

Terrific shooters from deep and awesome pull up shooters who can stop on a dime in a pick-and-roll, Butler and Rose will have their work cut out for them.

Rose could see limited minutes in his first game back, with Hoiberg saying to the Chicago Tribune that it would depend “on how he feels in the morning”. After back-to-back wins against both LA teams, the Blazers will look to make it three wins in a row.

However, Leonard went to the rim for a layup off a feed by David West and then hit a long three-pointer to put the game out of reach. Speaking to Talking Points, a Mercury News blog, Nash said that Curry is the most skilled player to ever step foot in the league.

“We’ve got guys who can score, guys who can facilitate, guys who can rebound, guys who can shoot, guys who can drive”.