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Chicago couldn't stop Brook at all tonight, simply put. This entire series has continued to act as a showcase of his clearly elite-level talent |
I'll keep it short because it's late and I got back from the game pretty late too, but the Brooklyn Nets–facing elimination from the 2013 playoffs–stepped up in a massive way to hold on and beat the pesky Chicago Bulls that just wouldn't go away. The Nets went to Brook Lopez early and often, as the center scored 11 points in the 1st quarter en route to a game-high 28. Guarded by a hampered Joakim Noah for much of the night, Brook had nearly free reign in the paint and eschewed his trademark jumper for dunks and layups at the rim.
Extending a five-point 1st-quarter lead to eight at halftime (52-44), Brooklyn was in a great spot heading into the 2nd half, but nearly fell apart. Chicago, although being down 10 at the beginning of the 3rd quarter after a quick Lopez bucket, continually kept their deficit around eight points, well within striking distance of the lead. Then, after nearly 12 minutes of exchanging points and uneasy feelings for Brooklyn fans, a quick 6-1 run for Chicago made the difference between the two teams after 36 minutes of play to just four.
The 4th started off shaky, as a Jimmy Butler three right at the start cut the Brooklyn lead to just one. It perilously remaining around three points until a flagrant foul by Marco Belinelli on Andray Blatche going up for a layup gave the Nets two free throws (which Blatche hit), bringing the lead up to five and leading to a later Blatche jumper that increased it to seven, a size at which the Bulls couldn't return from. It wasn't easy, but it was a win, so I'll take it gladly.
Some other observations I had from the game: #ReggieEvansPlayoffReboundWatch: 12 in 24 minutes. Was big reason why the Nets outrebounded the Bulls by a margin of 44-33……Three Bulls players (Deng, Boozer, Nate) played more than 40 minutes, while no Nets did. Thibs' strategy of running his guys on empty hurt him tonight as Chicago looked really gassed in the final quarter, which may have accounted for the Nets being able to run away with the game……Brook and Deron led the way yet again, with them combining for 51 points on 17-34 shooting. Brook also collected 10 boards while D-Will dished out 10 assists. Others contributed to the win, but these two were the guys who kept the Nets steady and always in the lead, hitting the big three or and-one layup when the team needed it. Deron finally took advantage of his size difference with Nate-Rob until Jimmy Butler was put on him, which slowed his scoring a bit……Gerald had another pretty good game, scoring 12 and hitting a few incredibly big threes at momentous turning points in the game, at one point bringing the Brooklyn lead up to 10. Played great defense too on Deng. Blatche and Hump did nice work on offense as well, hitting almost all their shots to keep Brooklyn in this one.
Looking Ahead
The Nets live to fight another day, as they head back to Chicago to take on the Bulls in Game 6 on Thursday night, another elimination game for Brooklyn.
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