Nets Hold Off Bulls' Late Surge to Snap Five-Game Losing Streak

The Brooklyn Nets came away with a 112-109 victory over the Chicago Bulls to snap a five-game losing streak.

The Bulls nearly stole this game late in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Nets 37-23.

Brooklyn held a 108-102 lead with a minute left to go in the game, but a Jalen Smith 3-pointer and takeaways leading to buckets on the other end from Isaac Okoro and Tre Jones gave Chicago a one-point lead nearly 50 seconds later.

However, Michael Porter Jr. saved the day, getting free from a Drake Powell screen in the right corner and getting the ball at the right elbow before getting to the rim and finishing against Coby White draped all over him to put the Nets up 110-109 with 5.4 seconds left in the game.

Chicago still had life, but the pressure clearly got to them, as it was forced to burn two timeouts following MPJ's bucket. The Bulls finally got a clean inbounds pass, but Drake Powell intercepted Jones's pass a second later before Noah Clowney's two free throws iced the game.

"The lesson is that there's no safe lead in the NBA," Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez said. "Teams will always punch back. At the end of the day, responding is important because when things go against you, and then the other team takes the lead, it may seem like a big mountain in front of you, and I think guys kept composure. Scored when we need to. Mike with the big bucket, and then the stop."

Each time the Bulls appeared to get back in the game, Porter stayed composed and made the right play, whether it was nailing a 3-pointer or putting his head down and either getting a layup to go or to the free-throw line.

Clowney's stretch in the second quarter helped the Nets extend the lead from 42-36 with about five minutes left in the second quarter all the way out to 57-40 by the end of the first half, getting a couple of AND1 buckets to go and drilling a 3-pointer while bringing some much needed life to the Barclays Center crowd.

"First couple times I drove, I noticed that they weren't holding the gap," Clowney said. "Especially with Mike, they were staying on his body, and so it was a lot of room to drive. My first drives were hesitant, trying to see if they were going to hold the nail, and then when I realized they were just playing 1-on-1, essentially, with rim protection behind, I just start going."