Nets embarrassed by Bulls in 44-point rout
The Bulls' Patrick Beverley passes the ball past the Nets' Mikal Bridges during the second half of an NBA game Friday in Chicago. Credit: AP/Charles Rex Arbogast
CHICAGO — Now that the shock of losing Kevin Durant and Kyrie has worn off, is this the Nets team fans are going to have to watch for the rest of the season?
If so, it’s going to be a long, painful couple of months as the Nets were annihilated, 131-87, Friday night by what was supposed to be a struggling Chicago Bulls team.
The Nets are now 3-5 since Irving demanded to be traded on Feb. 3. Shortly after he was sent to Dallas, the Nets granted Durant’s trade request, sending him to Phoenix and officially ending Brooklyn’s super team experiment.
With the loss, the Nets are barely clinging to fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The Nets have a one-game lead on the Knicks, who they play Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.
“You can’t have nights where you play this bad,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said.
How bad was it? The Nets trailed by as many as 50. The 44-point margin of loss was the Nets' biggest of the season, edging out the 43-point loss they suffered to the Boston Celtics on Feb. 1. The Nets scored just 29 points in the first half, marking the first time since April 26, 2012, against Toronto that they had been held under 30 points in a first half, according to YES Network.
Vaughn was concerned enough that he met with his coaches after the game, giving his team time to cool down. He then went in and briefly talked with them about what they needed to do. What exactly did he say?
“How are we going to react after this? Are we going to fold or are we going to get ready for the next one and be better?” Mikal Bridges said. “ And I think everyone in that locker room is not going to fold and we are all going to be better. It starts with tomorrow and we’re all going to learn from it and watch film and try to figure out who we are and what we can do better and get ready for Atlanta [on Sunday].”
The Nets, who trailed the entire game, finished the game shooting 37.2% from the field. Cam Thomas led the Nets with 22 points and Seth Curry scored 19, both off the bench. Bridges with 13 was the highest scorer among the Nets starters.
Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 32 points.
On paper, this should have been a fairly easy "W" for the Nets. Chicago headed into the All-Star break in a free fall, having lost six games in a row while dropping to 11th place in the Eastern Conference.
Coach Billy Donovan tried to shake things up with yet another starting lineup, inserting Patrick Beverley as the starting point guard over Ayo Dosunmu in this first game after the break. Dosunmu had started 45 games this season.
The Nets looked lost from the get-go as Chicago jumped out to an 11-0 lead. Vaughn called timeouts, made substitutions and even at one point sent five shooters onto the floor. Nothing worked as the Bulls rolled to a 62-29 halftime lead.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
