CHICAGO — The task was formidable, to put it mildly. But Nets coach Avery Johnson was excited about facing the Bulls, they of the NBA’s best record, as the finale to a back-to-back-to-back assignment.
Johnson hoped to see the Nets roll out the same starting lineup for a fifth straight game, something unheard of in a stretch where injuries were as plentiful as Dwight Howard trade rumors. And he’d get to see rookie MarShon Brooks take on the veteran pro, Rip Hamilton.
He might as well have wished for a winning PowerBall ticket, too. One bought for him by someone else.”We found out right before the game that MarShon (sore Achilles) wasn’t going to be able to go and we had to make some adjustments to our lineup,” Johnson said. “Just when we get excited about having the same lineup, a guy goes out 20 minutes before the game. It’s just something that we’re dealing with.”
That will teach him to get excited about extravagances like health and stable lineups.
And so the commonplace occurred last night — the Nets again were capsized by A) their own slow start or B) the other team’s fast start. The Bulls took control and opened it up early by double figures and never led by less than 12 in the second half as they overcame some injuries of their own and ran their record to 16-3 with a 110-95 yawner over the Nets at United Center.
“I thought we played well,” said Deron Williams (16 points, 10 assists). “This is a good team and given the circumstances of the back-to-back-to-back, the third night, we knew it was going to be a tough one. They had everybody back in the lineup and you could just tell this is a contender. So I thought we played well in spurts, and spots — we also played bad in spots.”
And the Bulls, who welcomed reigning MVP Derrick Rose (22 points, eight assists) back into the fold after a four game absence with turf toe, capitalized on any and all lapses by the Nets (5-13). They went without Luol Deng (wrist) so they parlayed six double-figure scorers, including Hamilton (22 points, 10 assists) who hit the 15,000 career point plateau, and Joakim Noah (16 points, 10 rebounds), plus the league’s stingiest scoring defense into a ho-hum affair.
With 9:33 left, it almost got interesting but the officials intervened. Hamilton swung an elbow at Nets D-League call-up Larry Owens (29 minutes, seven points) and was rapped with an offensive foul. Net Shawne Williams and Hamilton jawed. Both received technicals and were separated before any crowd-pleasing violence could occur. Johnson liked the way Williams stood up for his newest teammate. And Owens appreciated it, too.
“I’m an aggressive defender so I guess I bodied him up. I don’t know if he liked it or not or if he got hit coming through the lane. But it’s part of the game,” said Owens, who got extensive time because the Nets are woefully short at the three — Damion James is headed for foot surgery today, Shawne Williams has been hurt off and on, and Brooks has been used there along with DeShawn Stevenson, who has battled a balky knee and was given the second half off last night.