Chicago Bulls win big against New Jersey Nets; Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng lead the way – NBA Recap
The Chicago Bulls notched up another impressive victory on the road, 108 – 87 against the New Jersey Nets, to strengthen their stranglehold at the top of the Eastern Conference. Playing against the Nets at the Prudential Center, Chicago got ahead early and never gave their opponents a chance to come back into the game.
"The Bulls are an outstanding team and they just got going on us early," New Jersey coach Avery Johnson said. "They came out and were really focused. Teams like that have a mindset to come out and throw a knockout punch in the first quarter to set the tone. That's what they did. You have to give them a lot of credit for that.”
"They built a substantial lead and it was hard for us to overcome that."
Even more impressive was the fact that Chicago secured the win without any major contribution from super star point guard Derrick Rose. The reigning NBA MVP got into foul trouble that restricted his participation in the game and was later taken out completely because of back spasms.
Rose though assured supporters after the game that the back issue wasn’t something serious and he would be back and running in no time.
"It's just something where I gotta get a massage and stretched the right way, and hopefully it'll be gone." He said.
With their star man a non-factor, two of his deputies stepped up to help Chicago get the win. Carlos Boozer was most impressive with a team high 24 points and 5 assists while Luol Deng made a mark with 19 points and some exceptional defensive play.
C.J. Watson came off the bench to play point guard for the team and did a terrific job, notching up 14 points and 11 assists.
Deron Williams was again the solitary highlight of New Jersey’s play. The gifted point guard scored a game high 25 points and dished out 5 assists. Others worth a mention were Kris Humphries, 10 points and 9 rebounds, and Jordan Farmar, 11 points and 5 assists.
Chicago opened the game with a 9 – 2 burst and things just kept getting worse for New Jersey as the first quarter progressed. The Bulls attacked ferociously were able to open up a 17 point gap, 27 – 10 3:43 left on the clock. By the end of the quarter, New Jersey were staring at a deficit of over 20 points, the score 35 – 14.
The Nets didn’t get punished as severely in the following quarter but still fell behind a little more. They were pretty much out of the game by halftime, with the Bulls leading 62 – 37.
After the break New Jersey were able to give some joy to their fans as they outscored Chicago 27 – 21 in the third period. That though was the only consolation from the game for Nets’ fans as their team was simply not able to cause any problems to Chicago, who romped home in the end for a 108 – 87 win.
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