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| Kris Humphries is quickly turning into a dependable and efficient interior scorer for the Nets. When Brook come back, it’ll be scary at how much better Hump will play when he isn’t the sole focus of the bigs of opponents. |
As I type this recap of today’s streak-busting game vs the Bulls, I am still in an irrational shock after the events that transpired this past afternoon at the United Center. The Nets, yes the same team that has lost two games to the Pistons and once against the Raptors already this season, snapped their season-high 8-game losing streak by beating the NBA-leading Chicago Bulls by a score of 97-85. This game was decided in the first 5:06 of the 1st quarter as during that time period, New Jersey simply exploded out to a 22-3 (not a typo, the Nets did score 22 out of the game’s first 25 points) lead, a lead which they would hold throughout the afternoon until the end of the 4th quarter.
The Nets never trailed in this one, and although it became very antsy at some points, the lead was basically 10 or more points throughout the game. As has been the story in basically every game the Nets have played recently, Deron Williams and Kris Humphries were the main forces offensively for New Jersey. D-Will hit five 3-pointers int he first half en route to a 29-point, 8-assist performance and Hump hit his first five shots from the field, which put him well on his way to a near-career high game with 24 points and 18 boards. Marshon Brooks also seemed to find his shooting stroke at some points and ended up with 19 points on the afternoon.
Enough with the offensive stats, let’s take a look at how the Nets were able to keep their big lead as the game progressed one quarter at a time. The normally efficient Bulls were held to 39 percent shooting from the field by a Nets team that seemed determined to play their best defensive game of the season, which they probably did accomplish. Chicago only hit three 3-pointers out of 13 attempted as their long-range shooters were mostly blanketed by New Jersey.
Another normal Bulls strength that was neutralized by the Nets was rebounding. In their last game, a win over the Celtics, Chicago was able to outrebound their opponents by 15. On the contrary against the Nets, the Bulls evenly split the 100 total rebounds in this game as they collected 50 while New Jersey grabbed 50 boards. One of the ways that Chicago normally takes over games is through rebound domination which is an area of the game that they just couldn’t do today. Without Derrick Rose and their normal rebounding advantage compounded with a surprisingly explosive and strong defensive performance by the Nets, Chicago just couldn’t go on a long enough streak in order to completely comeback from the huge deficit they faced in the 1st quarter.
Some other observations I had from the game: As this win was definitely the best 48 minutes of basketball that the Nets have played this whole season, there were a ton of positives to go over that we just normally don’t see from this team. First off, we only committed nine turnovers against one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. The turnover-prone duo of D-Will and Marshon combined for just three in the game as the Nets showed just how good they can be when they cut down on their turnovers, which has been a recurring problem all season…Even though he didn’t shoot well at all from the field (2-7), Shelden Williams was a beast on the boards against the likes of Noah, Boozer, and Deng. The Landlord collected 14 rebounds as he teamed up with Hump to limit how many second-chance shot attempts Chicago would get, which turned out to be relatively small…Not much bench production (just 11 points) as Emmett (1 minute), Sundiata Gaines (4 minutes), and Jordan Williams (2 minutes) didn’t see the floor much. I won’t object like I usually do because of how well the players that did play helped in the winning effort. Farmar (4 points), Petro (2 points), and Morrow (2 points) just couldn’t get into the offensive flow and ended up not really producing much for the win…DeShawn Stevenson hit his first 3-pointer in a few weeks as he rebounded from a string of poor games and scored six points while grabbing seven rebounds as well. DeShawn’s two 3-pointers on the game came at really crucial times as each of them served to crush the Bulls’ multiple failing comeback efforts that resurfaced every now and then throughout the game.
Looking Ahead
The Nets head back home to take on the similarly injured Milwaukee Bucks in their second game of a back-back-back at the Prudential Center tomorrow night. This guy named Brook Lopez will return in the game for New Jersey and I heard that he might really improve the Nets.
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