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Davis' season-high 40 leads Warriors past Bulls

Jan 19, 2008 - 6:59 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Thanks to Baron Davis, the Golden State Warriors finally won a game in the "Windy City."

Davis matched his career high with 40 points and made six 3-pointers and Stephen Jackson added 24 as the Warriors posted a 119-111 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Friday.

Monta Ellis chipped in 23 points for the Warriors, who snapped a six-game losing streak at the United Center and won for the first time since February 26, 2001.

"It's nice to match my career high in Chicago at the United Center," Davis said. "It kind of makes you feel like Michael Jordan."

Golden State, which blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead in a loss to Indiana on Wednesday, trailed for most of the contest before rallying behind Davis in this one.

The Warriors' point guard had 28 of his points in the second half, finishing 13-of-23 from the floor, including 6-of-8 from the arc.

Trailing, 71-61, with 5:20 left in the third, Davis had nine points - all on 3-pointers - to spark an 18-7 spurt, helping the Warriors take a brief 79-78 advantage with 1:44 left in the third.

"In the third quarter, I thought I could open things up for us," Davis said. "I was hoping to break the string of bricks we were shooting out there."

Davis had 19 third-quarter points - including five 3-pointers - and the game was tied at 84-84, heading into the fourth.

Chicago led by five midway through the fourth before the Warriors rallied again, using a 10-1 run - capped by a Matt Barnes' three-point play - to take a 101-97 lead with 5:18 left to play.

"You can not overlook Matt," Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "He got a lot of big rebounds for us and played a very gutsy game."

With Golden State clinging to a one-point lead late in the game, Davis drove into the lane and kicked it out to Jackson in the left corner. The Warriors' captain then drilled a 3-pointer, giving his team a 112-108 bulge with 46 seconds remaining.

"Baron drove on the play and forced (Luol) Deng to go to him," Jackson said. "(Baron) made a great pass by turning around to get the ball to me, I just knocked down the shot."

Chicago missed its next two shots and the Warriors made 6-of-7 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

"We had a couple of freaky plays toward the end of the game," Bulls interim coach Jim Boylan said. "We have got to learn how to close out games, maintaining leads has been a problem for us."

Trailing by one point after the first quarter, the Warriors missed their first 14 shots of the second as the Bulls used a 16-3 run - capped by Ben Gordon'a jumper - to take a 45-31 advantage with 6:36 left in the first half.

"We weren't making shots at all," Davis said. "I finished the first half solid and felt like I was in a groove coming out for the third quarter. I hit my first two shots then tried to stay as agressive as possible."

Gordon finished with 29 points and Andres Nocioni had 28 for the Bulls, who dropped to 0-16 when allowing more than 100 points this season.

"Our defense wasn't good enough," Gordon said. "They scored 69 points in the second half, that was pretty much it."

Thabo Sefolosha started at guard for the Bulls in place of Kirk Hinrich, who sat out his third straight game with back spasms.