CHICAGO — Game 1 of this series might as well be a month ago.
Less than a week after the Nets emphatically beat the Bulls in the opener of this best-of-seven affair, the Nets found themselves on the receiving end of a second straight defensive masterpiece at the hands of the Bulls Thursday night, barely cracking 30 percent shooting and falling 79-76 to Chicago in front of a sellout crowd of 21,672 inside United Center.
With the win, the Bulls pulled ahead two games to one in the best-of-seven series, and left the Nets with an almost must-win situation in Game 4 tomorrow.
Despite their offensive woes, the Nets somehow gave themselves a chance to send the game to overtime after closing the game with a 14-2 run and getting the ball down three, 79-76, with 4.4 seconds left.
But after Joe Johnson took the inbounds pass, he swung it to MarShon Brooks who then moved it along to C.J. Watson in the corner for an open look at the buzzer. But Watson’s shot missed everything, sending the Nets to a loss.
After the Bulls successfully smothered the Nets in Game 2 on Monday, it looked like Brooklyn had rediscovered how to attack the Bulls. In the opening minutes, the Nets moved the ball well, got several open looks, and attacked the rim, all of which added up to them starting out the game 5-for-8 and opening up a 17-5 lead halfway through the first quarter.
But then the bottom fell out.
Over the final 18 minutes of the first half, the Nets looked helpless, lost in a sea of wayward jump shots and contested drives to the rim. Brooklyn missed its final 15 shots of the quarter, allowing the Bulls to go on a 14-0 run to take a 19-17 lead.
Things got little better in the second, as the Nets opened the quarter missing 10 of their first 11 shots — making them 1-for-26 from the field over a 15:36 stretch before Joe Johnson finally hit a baseline jumper with 3:38 remaining in the half. The Bulls took advantage, going on a 28-4 run to take a 33-21 lead midway through the second.
Even after a slight improvement late in the half, the final numbers were ugly for the Nets: 9-for-40 overall (22.5 percent) from the field and 3-for-12 (25 percent) from 3-point range.
The most amazing thing about the offensive ineptitude for the Nets wasn’t the fact they missed so many shots — it was that missing so many shots didn’t take them completely out of the game.
Because of the Bulls’ their own offensive woes — they finished the first half 16-for-39 (41 percent) and committed nine turnovers — the Nets went into halftime down 41-34 after Gerald Wallace ended the half with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Luol Deng then opened up the second half with 12 straight points for the Bulls, engineering a personal 12-4 run to give the Bulls a 53-38 lead, giving Chicago a double-digit lead it would maintain until the frantic final few minutes.
In the fourth, the Nets managed to cut the lead to as few as three with 14.4 seconds left on a dunk by Brook Lopez, who led the Nets with 22 points. But Bulls guard Nate Robinson then knocked down a one of two free throws to officially put the game out of reach.
A big reason for the continued offensive woes for the Nets was the combination of Gerald Wallace and Reggie Evans. The duo combined to play 50 minutes, going 2-for-10 from the field (including Wallace going 1-for-5 from 3-point range). The bench, meanwhile, didn’t contribute much, either, going a combined 2-for-10 and finishing with five points — half of which came from Andray Blatche.
Once again, they also failed to contain Carlos Boozer, who has given the Nets trouble in each game he has played against them. Boozer made life miserable for Evans all night, finishing with 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting to go along with 16 rebounds as he gave the Nets fits inside all night.
After Wallace outplayed Deng in the first game of the series, Deng has thoroughly won the small forward battle each of the past two games, including going for 21 points, 10 rebounds and three assists in Game 3.
tbontemps@nypost.com