NBA

Nets come out flat as Chicago evens series

The Nets spent the two days between the end of their dominant victory in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Bulls on Saturday night and the beginning of Game 2 last night talking about needing to match Chicago’s level of desperation.

Then they came out flat.

The Nets opened the game by missing their first seven shots, then went 2-for-19 in the third quarter as the Bulls came away with a 90-82 victory over the Nets in front of a sellout crowd of 17,732 inside Barclays Center, evening the best-of-seven series. Game 3 is Thursday night in Chicago.

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A simple barometer of how the night went for the two teams could be boiled down to a pair of plays midway through the fourth quarter when the Nets, despite their dreadful third, had managed to cut the deficit to 73-68 after an Andray Blatche jumper with 7:45 remaining.

Faced with the Barclays Center crowd rocking and the Nets in the midst of a 11-2 run, the Bulls turned to their inspirational leader, All-Star center Joakim Noah, to lead them.

Noah, despite being hobbled by a case of plantar fasciitis in his right foot, first forced Blatche to miss a shot in the lane, and then slipped through Brooklyn’s defense to throw down a ferocious dunk to push the lead to seven.

On Chicago’s next offensive possession, Noah somehow managed to get his hands on a Carlos Boozer missed jump shot, and found Nate Robinson for a 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 78-68, giving Chicago enough of a cushion to hold off another late Nets rally.

Deron Williams, who had been playing brilliantly lately, struggled with his shot throughout. He registered 10 assists, but went just 1-for-9 from the field — including 0-for-5 from 3-point range — and finished with six points.

Joe Johnson, meanwhile, went more than two quarters without making a basket before knocking down a pair of 3-pointers late in the fourth to finish with 17 points on 6-for-18 shooting. Brook Lopez, after scoring 14 points in the first half, led the Nets with 21 points.

After getting off to a hot start and never looking back in their Game 1 victory, the Nets were ice cold at the start. The Nets, who shot 56 percent from the field and committed only eight turnovers in Game 1, missed their first seven shots and committed four turnovers before Gerald Wallace finally gave them their first bucket with a driving layup at the 6:48 mark of the first.

They eventually started to find the range, though, and cut the deficit to 20-17 after one quarter, thanks to seven points from Johnson.

After falling behind by as many seven early in the third, the Nets went on a 12-3 run to take their first lead of the game at 39-37 on a 19-foot jumper from Lopez.

After the Nets went into halftime trailing 47-46 following a C.J. Watson 3-pointer, things quickly went off the rails in the third. The Nets shot a dismal 2-for-19 in the quarter, missing plenty of wide-open looks, and failed to take advantage of the Bulls getting into the penalty halfway through the third.

The Nets finished the quarter with just 11 points, and entered the fourth trailing 69-57 after Chicago ended the third on a 9-2 run as the Nets went the final 5:45 of the quarter without making a basket.

tbontemps@nypost.com