Bulls 99 – Nets 93

SERIES 4-3  Chicago Wins

4/20 – CHI 89 @ BKN 106

4/22 – CHI 90 @ BKN 82

4/25 – BKN 76 @ CHI 79

4/27 BKN 134 @ CHI 142

4/29 CHI 91 @ BKN 110

5/2 BKN 95 @ CHI 92

5/4 CHI 99 @ BKN 93

Brooklyn came out a bit slow and turned it over and missed two shots on their first three possessions.  The Bulls came out more focused and ready and ran out to a quick 9-4 lead while Deron Williams tried to wake up his teammates and hit the Nets first seven points.  The Nets were overmatched in the paint early and Joakim Noah had four offensive rebounds in the first six minutes and six points from them.  Brook Lopez hit a bank shot to get the Nets to within 17-15 with four minutes left in first and it looked like they weathered the early storm from Chicago.  Andray Blatche made a first quarter appearance and helped the Nets with his offense as he scored five quick points to get Brooklyn to 29-25 after one. Noah had 10 points and five offensive rebounds in the first and Williams ended with nine points.

The Bulls hit the Nets with a 6-0 run to start the second and that was a precursor for the second quarter and led 34-25 early.  The Nets bench of CJ Watson, Kris Humphries, Blatche, Joe Johnson and MarShon Brooks did their best to get back into the game and got Brooklyn to within 40-36 midway through the second.  The Bulls bench came in and immediately went on an 11-2 run to get the lead to 51-38 and the game started to slip for Brooklyn.  Turnovers, 3-scond violations and missed open looks doomed the Nets in the second.  The death shot was a dunk by Carlos Boozer on a blown assignment with 1.2 seconds to push the lead to 61-44 at half.  The Bulls energy and fight was the difference in the first half as they got every loose ball and way too many offensive rebounds and layups.

Brooklyn came out and hit for five straight points to shrink the lead to 12 points in the first two minutes.  Gerald Wallace woke up from a season long slumber from beyond the arc and hit back-to-back 3 pointers to bring the Nets to down 67-60 with seven minutes left in the third.  Chicago hit more easy layups and jumpers to hold Brooklyn off and keep the lead at 78-70 with two minutes to play in the third.  Wallace hit another shocking 3-pointer to gets the Nets closer than they have been all game at 80-75 and the Barclays Center crowd was going bananas.  Noah hit another crazy lefty hook to end the quarter for the Bulls ahead 82-75 entering the final quarter of play.

[quote_simple]Brook Lopez – “We didn’t want to go out like this. We competed, we got better this season & we achieved a lot of our goals, but not all of them.”[/quote_simple]

Nets “Gone Fishing” via TNT

The fourth quarter began with Brooklyn having a great chance to get the game even closer but they couldn’t hit a shot to cut the lead.  The Bulls gave them plenty of chances to begin the fourth missing on their first five chances only to see Humphries miss multiple free throws and a couple of Nets turnovers kept them down by 10 at 86-76 with seven to play.  Johnson hit a few more open threes and Noah kept the defensive pressure up with a couple more big blocks.  Williams hit on a layup and a foul to bring the Nets to manageable 93-88 score with two minutes left.  Johnson missed two more 3-pointers and Marco Belinelli hit four free throws to seal the victory for the Bulls at 99-93.  Horrible shooting by Brooklyn and tentative defense cost them the game and they are going fishing earlier than expected.  Brooklyn shot a miserable 40 percent from the floor to 48 percent for Chicago.

P.J Carlesimo’s status as coach will be decided quickly in my opinion and it seems he has the players support although that doesn’t mean much to Mikhail Prokhorov.  Carlesimo did go 35-19 as the Nets interim coach and got his team to a homecourt playoff series that went seven games.  The biggest problem seemed to be rotations and letting players know their roles throughout the inconsistent year.

[quote_simple]“I think he did a great job,” Deron Williams said. “I thought that with everything that went on this season, we had a lot of turmoil and he kind of inherited us and I think he did a great job of leading us and getting us to that fourth seed. I’d love to see him back, but as you know, that’s not up to me.”[/quote_simple]

The Chicago Bulls are now 1-3 in road Game 7’s after the win in Brooklyn tonight.  Congrats Chicago.

LEADERS:

Points – Williams – 24

Rebounds – Evans – 13

Assists – Williams – 7

STAT OF THE NIGHT:  Joe Johnson went 2-14 from the field and 1-9 from 3-point range in one of his worst game son the year when Brooklyn needed him most.

GAMECHANGER:  The Nets lost the game with a putrid 32-19 second quarter and went to halftime down 17 in their own building in Game 7.

BOXSCORE REPLAY