Bulls 92 – Nets 90

Brook Lopez hits his first two shot with a Gerald Wallace layup to start a 6-0 run for Brooklyn. Lopez dominant early with 10 points and many of the passes came from Deron Williams. Nets up 14-4 midway through the first. Lopez has 18 points. Williams has 6 assists. Reggie Evans has 7 boards. And it’s still the first quarter. Nets up 26-11 late first. Lopez leads the way by hitting 8 of 9 for 18 points and after one the Nets lead the Bulls 26-13. 

As always the Bench Mob started the second and the first missed trey for C.J. Watson, shooting 0-3 overall. He’s been missing with the few shots he’s taken. Nets lead Bulls 33-20. Pathetic 3pt FG% in this game. Nets are shooting an abysmal 0% (0-5) and Bulls are shooting almost as bad 0% (0-3).  Nets are letting a big lead slip away behind a Bulls 10-0 run. Still up 10 points, 37-27 against Bulls, after leading by 16 points early second. Another assist for Williams.  He’s been getting the ball to Nets teammates all day. Nets lead Bulls 47-36 at halftime.

[blockquote]”It was a big game for us,” said Deron Williams, who scored 30 points and had 10 assists in the loss. “We really needed this win bad. So it’s upsetting that we couldn’t get it, especially being up 16. So that was a bad loss for us.'[/blockquote]

Nets started slow in third as usual.  Luol Deng with a quick slice cut to the lane for the lay-up Bulls trail Nets 54-45 with 7:10 left in 3rd quarter.  Joe Johnson is having an awful game. He’s got 3 pts (1-5 FG), 2 steals and 2 turnovers in 21 min.  Williams is having a good offensive game with 19 points (6-11 FG), 7 assists and 2 treys.  They’re right back in it now.  Carlos Boozer leads with 6 points in the run (3-6 FG), 3 rebounds. It’s a game after three.  With a 19-9 run to close the third, Bulls cut the Nets lead to 1 point, 65-64.

Bulls take their first lead of the game with a Deng layup, up 71-67, early fourth with a quick 7-0 run. Bulls are dominating the boards. They’ve got 46 rebounds (13 off 30 def) vs 29 rebounds (5 off 24 def) for Nets. Boozer leads with 16 rebounds.  Lopez has gone silent down the stretch after a huge first.  Johnson hits a huge three to cut the Bulls lead within 1 point, 78-77 with 5:43 left.  Kirk Hinrich fouls out as Deron hits a layup and gives Nets a chance take the lead. Huge sequence. Johnson hit a humongous three with 1:14 left to give Nets an 88-86 lead. Rough sequence by Lopez in final two minutes as he  turns the ball over and doesn’t defend paint well enough as Nate hits a floater over him 22.7 seconds left.  Nets down 91-90. Williams drives the paint and hits a wide open Lopez on the baseline for the jumper that rims out – Nets lose big game at home 92-90.

[blockquote]“It was a good shot,” Williams said of the final play and missed shot by Lopez. “We will take that shot 10 out of 10 times. That’s his spot on the floor.[/blockquote]

LEADERS:

Points – Williams – 30

Rebounds – Evans – 13

Assists – Williams – 10

STAT OF THE GAME: Nets held the Bulls to their season low in points (5), 5-field goals made and 6 turnovers in the first quarter to take a 13 point lead.

GAMECHANGER:  Once again the third quarter did the Brooklyn Nets in as they can’t go one game top another without having a letdown in the third.  The Bulls got right back into the game with a 30-19 third quarter.  Eight turnovers in the fourth salted the game away for Brooklyn as well.

 BOXSCORE REPLAY