The Bulls’ season has several stains on it already, but a loss to the Nets on Nov. 1 in Brooklyn was one of the uglier ones. The Bulls shot poorly that night, defended even worse and let a team that simply isn’t as talented on paper feel good about itself.
“Brooklyn is ahead of us in the standings, so there is an understanding from our guys that we don’t have any margins,” coach Billy Donovan said Monday. “We have to play well.”
Message heard.
On a night when the Nets opted to sit scoring threats Cam Johnson and Cam Thomas with bumps and bruises, what could have been a trap game for the Bulls turned into a slap game — an 128-102 victory that included guard Josh Giddey’s first triple-double as a Bull.
“It was cool,” Giddey said of his 20 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. “The guys made my job easy. We played the right way. I was able to throw the ball ahead. Guys made shots, got to the rim. Team effort. We did it by committee, and that’s how it’s got to be every night.”
The Bulls (9-13) can point to a dominant third quarter as the turning point. Coming out of halftime leading by only six points, they first got a turnaround from center Nikola Vucevic (game-high 21 points) in the paint, followed by a fadeaway. The lead was up to 15 a few minutes later when Vucevic scored on an alley-oop from Giddey.
Two-time All-Star guard Zach LaVine hit a three-pointer with 4:33 left in the quarter, followed by a driving layup to increase the lead to 21. By the time the quarter was over, the Bulls had outscored the Nets 36-22, with Vucevic scoring 11 and LaVine 10. Both finished the quarter a plus-15 in plus/minus.
While the Bulls are playing checkers, simply looking to jump the Nets (9-13) in the standings, the Nets might be playing chess — or, more fittingly, capture the Flagg, as Cooper Flagg of Duke, the presumptive No. 1 draft pick in 2025. The overwhelming opinion around the Nets since the season started has been that they’d be one of around 10 teams interested in playing not to win because of the loaded draft class.
So while the Bulls were glad to have a night of little resistance in the second half, the Nets seemed content with not resisting. They won four of five games between Nov. 19 and last Wednesday but suddenly have seemed to pump the brakes and now are on a three-game losing streak.
If Bulls management truly understood what’s at stake in the long term, they might copy that blueprint. But on Monday, they instead got rookie forward Matas Buzelis scoring a career-high 20 points and six players in double figures.
“Just keep learning,” Buzelis said of his performance. “Keep progressing.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
