CHICAGO — The Nets got big production from their bigs off the bench Thursday night.
In their 95-92 victory over the Bulls in Game 6 of their best-of-seven first-round series, the Nets received a combined 16 points and 11 rebounds from Andray Blatche and Kris Humphries, giving them crucial minutes when starters Brook Lopez and Reggie Evans were on the bench.
Blatche, in particular, was important, scoring the final five points of the game for the Nets, including a pair of free throws with 19.2 seconds left that put them up by three.
“I thought he was really big in a lot of ways,” interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said of Blatche, who had 10 points and seven rebounds in 18:35 while dealing with a right calf strain. “I put him in there [in the fourth] and he stepped up and hit some big free throws. He also made good decisions when he got the ball.”
Blatche said he will be ready for Game 7.
“It’s OK,” Blatche said. “I iced it down, so I’ll go back and get some treatment tomorrow.”
Humphries, who finished with six points and four rebounds in 10:43, also gave the Nets some valuable minutes, particularly when filling in for Lopez.
“He was great as well tonight,” Deron Williams said. “A lot of energy, running the floor, and he was just active out there.”
* The Nets head back to Brooklyn for the first Game 7 in Barclays Center history tomorrow night, where a win would make them just the ninth team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series.
Entering this season, teams that went down 3-1 in a series were 8-202 all-time in NBA playoff history, with the most recent comeback being when the Suns beat the Lakers in the first round in 2006.
Since the first round changed to a best-of-seven format back in 2003, two teams — the Suns and the Pistons in 2003 — out of the 15 that fell behind 3-1 have managed to come back and win the series, and just one other team, the Grizzlies last year against the Clippers, managed to push the series to a seventh game.
One piece of history also working in the Nets favor: all three times those first-round series went to a seventh game, the home team won.
* The Bulls entered the game with all kinds of various ailments, and the injury issues for the Nets paled in comparison.
Nevertheless, Brooklyn had its own assortment of bumps and bruises. Joe Johnson, who said after Wednesday’s practice that he is virtually playing on one leg and wouldn’t be playing if this was the regular season, took his usual place in the starting lineup and said he wasn’t feeling much different. Johnson played big minutes (37:57) and played well, finishing with 17 points.
After sitting out of Wednesday’s practice with the flu, Reggie Evans, who said he was feeling much better, started and had two points and 15 rebounds in 29:21.