The Chicago Bulls needed to come up with a great performance to prevent a four-game losing skid on Sunday against the reigning NBA champions, Golden State Warriors at home. Fortunately for the Bulls, Nikola Vucevic was there to answer the call, as the Chicago big man threw his weight around and torched the Warriors for 43 points – tying his career high – to lead his team to a 132-118 victory.

Bulls guard Zach LaVine was among those left in awe of his teammate's huge game, saying that Chicago recognized early that Vucevic was feeling it, so the team just tried to ride on the Montenegrin's back (h/t Alex Shapiro of NBC Sports Chicago).

“You could see off the get go that he had the hot hand, and we played off of him,” said Zach LaVine. “That’s what you can do when you’ve got a guy like that. It was great.”

With the Bulls missing leading scorer DeMar DeRozan for the third game in a row, Vucevic made sure DeRozan's void will be covered well in the game against the Warriors.

Vucevic saved his best form for the final period when the Bulls needed it the most. Chicago got 16 points from Vucevic in the fourth quarter, during which he went 6-for-9 from the field, including a couple of made 3-pointers.

All told, Vucevic shot 18-for-31 for 43 points with five drained triples to go with 13 rebounds, four assists, and four steals in just 39 minutes of action for the Bulls. He did get plenty of support as well from his teammates, with LaVine putting up 27 points. Coby White came off the bench and scored 15.