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Salmons helps Bulls bounce back, trounce Warriors

Mar 5, 2009 - 6:57 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- John Salmons scored 23 points and Joakim Noah added 14 and 17 rebounds as the Chicago Bulls bounced back from an ugly loss with a 110-88 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.

Brad Miller scored 19 points off the bench for the Bulls, who banded together without injured forwards Luol Deng and Tim Thomas.

Six players scored in double figures for Chicago, which suffered a 96-80 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday.

"We had to bounce back from our game in Charlotte where we did not get off to a good start," Salmons said. "We started slow tonight, but today we had energy and got into it."

The Bulls carried over that sluggish start to this one, when they fell behind by six points after the first quarter. They outscored the Warriors, 31-19, in the second to take control of the game.

Chicago coach Vinny Del Negro saw a shift in his team's intensity after the opening 12 minutes.

"It wasn't a productive first quarter but, after we cut their lead back to six points, the momentum changed," the coach said. "Then, our guys got more aggressive and started rebounding.

"Golden State has a lot of weapons out there, but our defense controlled their shots."

Salmons and Miller were acquired in a trade with the Sacramento Kings before last month's trade deadline and were asked to pick up much of the scoring slack with Deng and Thomas - another trade deadline pick-up - out of the lineup.

"I am just trying to help our team win as much as possible and play the right way," Salmons said. "Hopefully, that will lead to more Ws."

The newly acquired duo combined to shoot 14-of-23 from the field against the Warriors.

Ben Gordon added 15 points, while Derrick Rose netted 14 for the Bulls, who announced earlier in the day that Deng may have a more serious injury than originally thought. He will have his right shin evaluated on a day-to-day basis for what could be a stress fracture.

Chicago (28-34), which remains in the hunt for the final playoff spot in the East, will face the Milwaukee Bucks (29-35) - the current owner of the eighth seed - on Friday.

Stephen Jackson scored 19 points and Corey Maggette added 14 for the Warriors, who were outrebounded, 54-41, and shot just 5-of-21 from the arc. Golden State came into the game averaging 108 points per game.

"We couldn't make any shots after the start we had," Jamal Crawford said. "The way we lost tonight, was effort play. They won the battle of effort."

According to coach Don Nelson, the Warriors were just collectively out of it.

"You get surprised in life all the time, this was a surprise tonight," he said. "After a big game in Minnesota where we played so well, this might be the worst three quarters we have played in two months.

"Not one guy played worth a darn after the first quarter."

Golden State beat Minnesota, 118-94, on Tuesday.