The Brooklyn Nets are on a winning streak. I know we’re barely making quota for a statement like that, but who knows how often we’ll get to say it this year. Let’s all just soak it in.
Brooklyn took its time getting started offensively. The Nets began the game 1-6 from the field, either missing short, or sometimes everything, on jumpers. But then, Michael Porter Jr. started carrying. You’d never know this guy has a bad back with how been able to do that for the Nets offense at times this year. In the first, he put in 14 points while shooting 5-9 from the field.
However, all offense outside of him remained a struggle…
Nets not named Porter Jr. shot 5-14 from the field in the first. Ben Saraf did nail a rather deep triple though, which feels like it should count extra.
That was enough to give the Nets a five point lead after one. Chicago’s offense not being much better than Brooklyn’s helped out with that. They picked on Egor Dëmin a few times during the games opening minutes, even forcing him into some early foul trouble, but struggled to finish plays, fumbling a fast break sequences and missing a few open looks.
Dëmin’s two personals less than four minutes into the contest gave us another early introduction to Ben Saraf, but Day’Ron Sharpe, Danny Wolf, Drake Powell, and Ziaire Williams followed soon as the Nets went with a hockey-style line change tonight. That five stayed on the floor to begin the second, where Sharpe seemed to take offense after any Chicago attempts to retake the lead. He rejected two shots in less than two minutes.
That rim defense had to have been disheartening for any Chicago fan watching, as just getting shots became a struggle in the second. They reached four turnovers just over four minutes into the period, bringing their total to eight at the 7:39 mark of the second. That made it easy for the Nets to get out and run, give their young guns confidence, and keep firing…
It was a big first half for the guys on Brooklyn’s roster synonymous with that term. Even with Wolf doing things that could’ve got him accused of center witchcraft 20 years ago and Sharpe hosting a block party, no one looked better than Nic Claxton, who seemed to finish every other possession in the second simply running past Nikola Vučević for lay-ins.
Behind Porter Jr., who had 17, Clax led the Nets into the half with seven points, a steal, and a block while shooting 3-4 from the field. He also got involved as a facilitator as the Nets once more took turns running the offense through different players minus Terance Man….
Dëmin also came off the bench to grab seven first half point, all coming in the second frame. He got nearly half of them on a pull-up three in Josh Giddey’s grill. However, the very next time down the floor, Giddey bull-dozed him en route to an and-one finish. That capped a partially good, partially bad, and entirely “rookie” kind of first half for the eighth overall pick.
But outside of Giddey, Chicago’s play, particularly their offense, was just the latter. You’d have to go to a dark place to imagine what they would have looked like without the do-it-all guard. He added 15 points, seven rebounds, and three assists in the first half after shooting 4-7 from the field.
At the break, he was a +2, while other starters Julian Phillips and Ayo Dosunmu were both -7. Matas Bazelis was a -9. The Bulls scored only 44 points to Brooklyn’s 54, giving them their lowest scoring first half all season.
As any seasoned NBA fan will tell you, there’s two kinds of “bad” teams: those that simply lack talent, but never effort or focus, and those that don’t have any of the three. Not being the latter is what Brooklyn’s prided itself on so far in the Jordi Fernández era, and the Bulls gave us a quick view of what other side looks like to begin the third…
After Chicago quickly cut it to five to begin the third, the Nets swung back with their own 5-0 run, which eventually boiled into a 17-point Brooklyn lead. In that stretch, we saw Chicago commit and over-and-back violation, closeout late on threes, commit additional turnovers and omit from hustling back on defense…
But that’s the thing about energy and focus, it’s all on you, and therefore easy to fix. The Bulls eventually did so, going on an 11-2 run in the heart of the period.
Brooklyn’s lack of talent then started to show too. As Chicago’s defensive intensity picked up, Brooklyn’s offense stalled, lacking much shot creation outside of Porter Jr. Drake Powell dribbled into a turnover with about three minutes to go in the third, which qeued up a Chicago layup, making it only a six point game.
Powell redeemed himself with a triple a few sequences later which helped the Nets stay afloat and enter the fourth with an 83-75 lead.
There, the Nets opened up with a five including Wolf, Williams, Porter Jr., Clowny, and Claxton, betting again on the ultra-big lineup which helped the Nets seal the deal last time out vs the Hornets.
The coach cashed in again, as the Nets began the period on an 11-3 run. Clowney put on a PR clinic for he and his coach in the process. After going 0-4 from deep in the first half, he went 6-7 in the second half, splashing three in the final frame.
Brooklyn led by as many as 19 in the period, continuing to get contributions from Porter Jr. as well, who by that point had notched his seventh 30-point game of the season. In Denver, he never had more than six in a season.
Bulls cut it to 11 with around six to play, but then Clowney passed the sniper rifle to Wolf, who then handed it to Williams, who then gave it to Dëmin. Each hit big triples one after the other, stabilizing the Brooklyn lead which in the windy city.
Final: Brooklyn Nets 113, Chicago Bulls 103
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Brooklyn will complete a back-to-back sequence tomorrow night, returning home to host the Utah Jazz for the first time this season. The Jazz don’t appear to be a strong tank competitors to the Nets as they were last year, posting a 7-13 record at the time of writing, but you can never be too safe with Danny Ainge’s crew. Utah beat Brooklyn both times last year.