The game featured two of the NBA’s premier point guards, Deron Williams of the Nets and reigning MVP Derrick Rose of the Bulls. Williams deftly side-stepped and squashed any of the one-on-one angles of the game.
“I like playing the best, and he’s the best,” Williams said while stressing, “It’s not about me versus Derrick Rose. It’s about the Bulls versus the Nets.”
Yeah, but him versus Derrick Rose was a heckuva lot more interesting than Bulls versus Nets, even if Rose lasted just one half before sitting with lower back spasms. Bulls versus Nets was a mismatch of Biblical proportions.
“It’s just deflating getting down 30 points,” Williams said.
See where this is going? With a large fan base among the 15,327 in the Prudential Center stands giving them as much support as that received by the throwback-dressed and undermanned Nets, the Bulls broke on top and broke away early and romped to a 108-87 victory that increased their Eastern Conference-best record to 22-6.
“They came out, and they were really, really focused,” said Avery Johnson, who sent nine bodies into the battle and saw them fall behind by as many as 32 points, with a 23-point deficit in the first quarter. “Teams like that, the mindset is come out and try to throw kind of a knockout punch in the first quarter and set the tone. That’s what they did.”
Tone set. Punch thrown. Nets decked.
The Bulls had Rose score four points in just 11 minutes, but hit their first nine shots against the 8-18 Nets, who counted Keith Bogans (seven points, 20 minutes), making his first start as a Net in just his fourth game, among the nine.
Williams had a strong scoring night with 25 points, but he had just five assists. Carlos Boozer led five Bulls double-figure scorers with 24 points. Luol Deng scored 19 and led the 9-of-15 3-point barrage with three trifectas.
By the end of the game, the crowd was wildly chanting for ex-Net Brian Scalabrine.
“I’m not used to this. I’m not used to any of it,” Williams said. “We’re not giving them much to cheer for. They’ve got to cheer for somebody.”
Last week, Johnson’s shorthanded “Great Eight” proved enough to beat the Pistons at The Rock. But this time, the “Divine Nine” resembled something that crawled out of Dante’s seventh circle of Hell.
For all intents, the game was over before the first quarter was halfway done. At 6:18, Boozer scored a layup — the Bulls’ ninth straight successful shot to start — that pushed the Nets into a 20-6 ditch.
The Nets cut a 32-point monstrosity down to 17, but the Bulls never fretted and the refs thankfully went by the second half adage of “No blood or protruding bone, no foul.”
Bogans had hoped to be in a more viable game against the team that unceremoniously waived him. Bogans was able to speak about what many hoped would be the marquee matchup — Williams versus Rose. He has played with both.
“They’re two different types of players,” he said. “Deron’s a post-up player, he’ll back you down. Derrick’s more of a speed player. He’ll beat you off the dribble, beat you in transition, and jump over you.”
Sort of like what all the Bulls did to the Nets.