When the Nets moved to Brooklyn, the natural assumption was their relocation within a subway ride of Madison Square Garden would create a meaningful rivalry with the Knicks.
But truth be told, if the Nets are close to building any kind of rivalry of substance these days, it’s with the Chicago Bulls, who had Andray Blatche vowing “We owe these guys,” heading into Monday night’s game at Barclays Center.
The Knicks have made themselves an afterthought to the Nets and everyone else in the league with their horrid season. A rivalry needs a foundation of meaningful games and intense competition to heighten anticipation for future match-ups. Nets-Knicks doesn’t qualify. Nets-Bulls does.
Blatche and the Nets got some much-needed revenge Monday night with a solid 96-80 victory over the visiting Bulls, who committed a season-high 28 turnovers. It ended Chicago’s four-game winning streak overall and three-game winning streak over the Nets dating back to last season.
“They’ve had our number all year, so we wanted to bring the fight to them,” said Shaun Livingston, who had 14 points and five steals. “We had to compete.”
These two teams might meet again in the postseason, which is why it was important for the Nets to avoid being swept by the Bulls during their three-game regular-season series. The Bulls had won the two previous meetings: 95-78 on Christmas Day in Brooklyn, and 92-76, on Feb. 13 in Chicago. But the Nets dominated Monday night behind 20 points from a rejuvenated Deron Williams and 19 from a determined Joe Johnson.
“We came out focused with the intensity we needed to win,” Johnson said. “We wanted to dictate how the game would be played and we sustained it for 48 minutes.”
With the Nets controlling throughout, the game lacked the edginess of past encounters though Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau drew a technical foul in the first quarter for arguing a call, and Paul Pierce and Taj Gibson were given double technical fouls for jostling with each other in the fourth.
The atmosphere figures to be much more intense should they meet in a postseason rematch. The Nets are still miffed they dropped Game 7 at Barclays Center last spring to lose a first-round series to the Bulls. Losing the first two regular-season meetings was like rubbing salt into their wounds.
But the Nets have found something using a smaller lineup with Johnson and Paul Pierce at forward. They are faster, more aggressive and fearless. The Nets scored 30 points off the 28 forced turnovers.
“By no means were we going to lay down tonight and give it away easy,” Johnson said.
Beating the Bulls offered an ideal start to a stretch when they will play seven of their next 10 games at home. At 29-29, they are back to .500 after being 10-21 on New Year’s Day. Jason Kidd doesn’t care much about the record. He just wants the Nets to keep playing good basketball.
“The main thing for us to understand is we have [24] games left and we have to get better,” he said.
Should the Nets and Bulls meet in the first-round of the playoffs again this year, it would pit Kidd, the rookie head coach, against Thibodeau, who has proven to be one of the league’s top coaches. That’s why Monday night’s win wasn’t just good for the players but their coach as well.
“Guys were helping each other on the post-ups, getting deflections, and that was a big part of why we won,” Kidd said. “Offensively, we were sharing the ball. Guys were touching it and getting wide-open looks.”
Said Nets forward Andrei Kirilenko, “It’s all about our game. If we execute our game plan, we always win the game.”
Chances are the Nets and Bulls will add another layer to their budding rivalry during the postseason. That’s why Bulls-Nets is already more meaningful than Knicks-Nets.