Nets Blowout Bulls In Wire-To-Wire Win 133-118
In the fourth game of this stretch of seven that the Nets need to win in order to turn this season around, the Nets put on arguably their best performance of the season on both sides of the ball. Brooklyn came out on top 133-118 on Friday evening at the Barclays Center. Chicago never even tied the game.
Spoiler alert: it was one of those games where Kyrie Irving couldn’t be stopped. He erupted for 54 points in his highest scoring game of this season. Fun fact it was the second highest-scoring game in franchise history and as impressive as it was, Irving’s efficiency was even more impressive. He went 19-23, missing only four shots, and he also hit seven three pointers.
“I’m just happy to be back playing the game that I love most…the beauty is in the process. It’s in the preparation. Before I get here I’m trying to get locked in mentally…do the best job I can that’s all I’m trying to do,” said Irving. “When we trust each other like that on both ends of the floor, especially offensively it makes it easier for all of us to be aggressive, and I think that we did a great job at that tonight. We’ve just got to keep it going for All-Star break. The fans deserve us to move up in these standings, we’ve got some work to do.”
Brooklyn is still the 8th seed.
Although it was clearly Irving’s night he wasn’t the only one that had it going, as five Nets players scored in double digits, including Spencer Dinwiddie who scored 20 points and dished out seven assists off the bench. This all came as a result of Brooklyn displaying their ability to move the ball beautifully against Chicago. They totaled 30 assists, which is eight more than their season average (23.8 APG).
The Nets also got back to their usual ways by dominating in the paint. They haven’t been doing that consistently lately but they outscored the Bulls down there 62-50. Brooklyn averages 50.2 PPG in the paint this season.
Another impressive aspect of this matchup is the fact that both teams coughed the ball up a bunch of times, since they both struggle with taking care of the ball. In this one the Nets lost that battle by committing 20 turnovers to the Bulls’ 14, but that didn’t get in their way of racking up the points and assists.
Although Coach Atkinson was disappointed with the turnovers, he was impressed with the overall performance.
“I thought we got out in transition and got a lot of easy buckets. Listen they’re the 6th best defense in the league, they do a phenomenal job, but I think our goal was to get it up the floor before they could get the defense set. They still turned us over 20 times,” said Atkinson. “Obviously Kyrie vintage performance…and Spencer I think was right behind him. Super efficient, but give Jarrett Allen and DJ, our fives screening for them [credit]. We did a good job, 31 assists, getting it out and moving it, but having those two guys play at a high level like that [it] bodes well for our future.”
