The Brooklyn Nets hosted the Chicago Bulls at Barclays Center on Thursday and won 116-105. Chicago leads the regular-season series 2-1.
For the Nets, Spencer Dinwiddie had 25 points and six assists while Cam Thomas had 20 points and six rebounds. Joe Harris had 18 points and Yuta Watanabe had 14 points.
For the Bulls, Zach LaVine had 38 points and one assist while Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and 17 rebounds. DeMar DeRozan had 14 points and Coby White had 11 points.
In the first half, Brooklyn did not have the best start to the game as it looked like the players were trying to figure out each other’s roles on the fly. By the end of the first half however, it looks like newcomers Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith settled in and played the roles they were expected to.
In the second half, Chicago made a bit of a comeback as LaVine started getting hot in the third quarter. However, Brooklyn pulled away in the fourth quarter thanks to clutch shots by Dinwiddie and awesome defense from the team as a unit.
Here are your Nets player grades:
Dinwiddie struggled with his shot in this game, his first game with the Nets in his second stint in Brooklyn as a result of the Kyrie Irving trade. Dinwiddie did a good job of chasing down rebounds from his guard position and he did a great job of passing the ball when he was able to break down his defender and create an opening for his teammates. He had a good game on the defensive end as he made sure to have active hands whenever he was on the floor.
Thomas had his first game in a while where he couldn’t buy a bucket. This was one of those games that showed how Thomas’ shot selection can improve and that improvement would help him shoot better when his touch isn’t there. Despite his poor shooting, Thomas did a good job of staying in the game by helping out on the boards and having some nice passes to his teammates when they were open.
O’Neale struggled shooting the ball all night long. As one of Brooklyn’s best three-point shooters, it was disappointing that he missed most of his shots from three-point land. Outside of that, he did a decent job rebounding and he provided some value passing the ball and finding the open man. O’Neale’s defense was rough in this one though.
Finney-Smith did not shoot the ball well in this one, especially from three-point land. He did have a couple of thunderous dunks against the Bulls for what that’s worth. DFS was awesome on the boards and on the defensive end as he did a good job of guarding guys like DeMar DeRozan.
Sharpe missed some easy shots at the rim, but he also had some strong finishes as it seems like he is intentional about trying to dunk the ball every time he gets it near the hoop. He did a great job of rebounding the basketball in place of Nic Claxton and Sharpe played some good defense on Nikola Vucevic by making most of his shots of the difficult variety.
Simmons did a good job of scoring the ball in this one. Although it was in a bench role, Simmons looked more aggressive during his time on the floor as he was driving to the basket or rolling to the rim whenever he could. He did a great job of getting on the glass and he had some nice passes in this one as one of the main creators for this new-look Brooklyn Nets team. Simmons fouled a bit too much in this one and that’s something he hasn’t fixed yet.
Mills had a rough night against Chicago. He struggled with his shot for most of the game, even though he was effective from the three-point line. While he did a good job of helping out with rebounding and passing the ball, his defense left a lot to be desired.
Harris shot the ball wonderfully in this contest against the Bulls. He scored all of his points in the second quarter, but Joe E. Buckets showed himself again tonight. Harris made a good effort to get on the glass, but other than that, he did not contribute much else to this game.
Watanabe did a great job of shooting the ball as he was lights out from behind the three-point line, especially from the corner. He did a good job passing the ball in this one and his defense was critical to the Nets building their lead in the second half.
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