One down, two to go.
The Nets took their first step toward trying to escape from their 3-1 deficit in their first-round NBA playoff series against the Bulls with a 110-91 Game 5 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 17,732 inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The series shifts back to Chicago for Game 6 on Thursday, as the Nets try to become the ninth team in NBA history to recover from down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series.
“It’s just one game at a time,” said Deron Williams, who finished with 23 points and 10 assists, before the game. “Our focus is on getting this one and going to the next one. Every game is essentially a Game 7 for us, because every game is an elimination game.”
After allowing a 14-point lead with three minutes remaining in Game 4 to slip away thanks to a scoring explosion by Bulls guard Nate Robinson, before eventually losing in triple overtime, it would have been fair to wonder if the Nets could recover from such a devastating loss.
But after saying they had gotten over the loss, the Nets went out and looked like a team with a point to prove right from the start in Game 5, riding yet another hot start from Brook Lopez — who had 11 points and three rebounds in the opening quarter — to jump out to a 26-21 lead after one.
Then, after the two teams went back and forth for much of the second quarter, the Nets closed the half with a 10-4 run, one capped by a pair of free throws and a runner from Lopez — who finished the half with 17 — to go into the break with a 52-44 lead.
Still, for as well as the Nets played, they couldn’t manage to shake the Bulls. Every time it seemed like the Nets would make a run and surge to a decent cushion, Chicago would hit a couple of shots to cut the deficit back down to a one possession game.
The Bulls got the lead down to one on two separate occasions, including with a Marco Belinelli jumper with 8:41 remaining to make it 85-84.
But the Nets went on a quick 6-0 run over the next 2 ¹/₂ minutes to extend the lead to seven, thanks to a bucket by Joe Johnson and four quick points from Andray Blatche.
Then, after the lead stayed there for several minutes, Gerald Wallace put a capper on the night.
Wallace, who finished with 12 points, drained a huge 3-pointer from the corner to put the Nets up 101-91 with 2:18 remaining and then picked off an errant Robinson pass, went coast-to-coast and emphatically slammed the ball home to put the Nets up by 12 with two minutes left.
Chicago — which already was playing without Derrick Rose, who remains out recovering from offseason knee surgery, and has Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and Taj Gibson all playing through injuries — also found itself without starting point guard Kirk Hinrich, who suffered a bruised left calf while playing 60 minutes in Game 4.
Robinson started in his place after his late-game heroics Saturday and, despite scoring 20 points and dishing out eight assists, looked to tire under the weight of playing 45 minutes.