The Nets can only watch as the Bulls’ Luol Deng dunks in the second quarter. Brooklyn lost its second playoff game to Chicago Monday, evening the series 1-1. (Getty Images)
Luol Deng was like a Bull in a china shop, only instead of fragile dinnerware, the Chicago forward spent the night breaking the Nets defense.
Much like he has done all season with Derrick Rose out while recovering from knee surgery, Deng packed an offensive punch for the Bulls, scoring a team-high 15 points to go with ten rebounds and four assists in Chicago’s 90-82 win over the Nets at Barclays Center Monday night.
“I felt as a leader and my attitude the whole day was that everyone stays ready,” Deng said. “I know what I can do, I just have to make sure everybody is ready for the intensity of the game.”
Deng was coming off of one of his worst performances of the season in Game 1. The 6-foot-9 forward, who led Chicago averaging 16.6 points while pulling down 6.3 rebounds per game in the regular season managed to score just six points on 3-of-11 shooting and grab two rebounds in the Bulls 106-89 loss to the Nets on Saturday night.
“Last game I felt like I wasn’t aggressive enough,” Deng said. “I’m confident in my game, I just felt like they got a big lead [in Game 1] and as long as the game stayed close [Monday night] I was going to get good looks.”
It was arguably Deng’s least productive outing of the season and his worst since he scored five points and added two rebounds and assists each on March 21 against Portland. Over his previous two games, Deng was averaging 5.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, four assists and was shooting 5-for-18 (1-for-6 3pt) from the field.
Deng would top his scoring and rebounding totals from Game 1 in the first quarter by scoring seven of Chicago’s 20 points and pulling in four rebounds. Deng started the scoring off with a 21-foot jumper to give the Bulls a 2-0 lead early on.
“Luol did a great job,” Bulls forward Taj Gibson said. “He was frustrated from last game. He stepped up the whole game and played like the All-Star that he is.”
On the defensive end Deng all but shut down Nets forward Gerald Wallace, who scored 14 points and had six rebounds in Game 1. Wallace had just two points and two rebounds in the first half after getting into foul trouble and did not score a single basket in the second half.
Deng did not want any credit for the defensive work he did on Wallace.
“Gerald is a great player but it happens in this game that guys sometimes don’t make shots,” Deng said. “Gerald always plays hard.”
One key to Deng’s performance was the improved health of Bulls All-Star center Joakim Noah.
Deng had been dealing with having to match up against bigger players due to the absence of Noah for the majority of the season’s final three weeks. Because of Noah’s injury, Deng saw some time at the power forward position despite playing mainly as a small forward throughout his career.
“We needed Luol,” Noah said. “He’s the glue to this team. He’s been doing that for us all year. If we’re going to beat Brooklyn we need a big Luol Deng.”
Deng’s poor performance before Monday night could also have been attributed to a culmination of an immense amount of wear and tear on the 28-year-old’s body.
In addition to leading the NBA in minutes per game in each of the past two seasons, Deng has been dealing with a hip injury that forced him to miss two games earlier this month and has played through a torn ligament in his left wrist since January 2012.
“We’re not forced to play,” Deng said. “If you feel like you’re playing too much and your body hurts, you don’t have to play that many minutes. If you don’t want to play that many minutes, you can just step into the office and say ‘Coach I don’t want to play this many minutes.”
asulla-heffinger@nypost.com