One of the early season’s most anticipated matchups is here: The Chicago Bulls, retooled over the offseason, will be coming to the Chase Center to play against the best team in the league in the Golden State Warriors. This is the heavyweight people have been expecting, a test for both teams to see if they’re really ready to punch once again with the NBA’s top franchises.

Earlier this week, Bulls guard and current league-leader in steals per game at 2.6 Alex Caruso went on JJ Redick’s “Old Man & The Three” podcast to talk about a few things, one of which was the topic of perennial MVP candidate Stephen Curry.

“I would say of the guys that I match up with - y’know, guards wings - that dude’s a menace” Caruso said when prompted by Redick asking if there was anyone harder to guard than the Splash Brother. “It’s borderline, at times, it’s unguardable… Inbound the ball to the next play, you can’t really do anything about it.”

Caruso has emerged as one of the league’s better perimeter defenders after a stint with the Lakers, a place he played a key role in winning with before LA refused to resign him in the off-season - despite Caruso and his camp being willing to take less money than Chicago offered. He was one of the defenders taking shifts against Curry during last year’s play-in games, and will have another chance to match up with the 2x scoring champ tonight.

Curry isn’t the only Warrior that’s been connected to Caruso this week, however. Emerging defensive playmaker Gary Payton II went live in media availability ahead of the game to talk about his past with the Bulls defender, including a G-League team together. Payton II told media that he “actually [looks] up to him quite a lot” per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. It adds another narrative layer to this Friday night national TV matchup to have two former teammates playing similar roles for their teams going after it.

The Bulls and Warriors tip off at 7pm Pacific time. It’ll be interesting to see how the narrative changes for the Warriors if they win tonight’s game, however, and if people will still discount them despite a win over a team tied for first in their conference.

(Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)