Bulls’ base Manhattan, not Brooklyn

NEW YORK — The first sign that maybe things would go better in Game 2 for the Bulls was the bus ride to Brooklyn on Monday.

The Bulls managed to travel roughly 65 blocks through Manhattan, cross the East River into Brooklyn, then finish the trip down Flatbush Avenue in roughly 40 minutes. During evening rush hour.

Playing the Nets gives most every NBA team a difficult choice when it comes to accommodations. There are probably nice hotels in Brooklyn, but apparently none that measure up to where NBA teams are used to sleeping.

During the regular season, the Bulls stayed in Battery Park, on the southern tip of Manhattan, when they played the Nets. This time, they stayed about two blocks south of Central Park.

“Battery Park would have been better,” native New Yorker Taj Gibson said. “I don’t know. I guess the hotels are different. Battery Park, you’d get to Brooklyn faster. But it doesn’t matter, I guess. You just have to adjust.”

One Bulls staffer suggested the change was mostly because the team was staying for three nights. The Midtown/Central Park South neighborhood features a better opportunity for one of an NBA player’s favorite activities — shopping.

Brooklyn has a tough time keeping up in that category, too. The shopping mall across the street from Barclays includes a Target, Payless and Applebee’s.

There’s more to the decision than just busing to the games and providing expensive shopping options. They have to figure out where to practice and hold shootarounds.

The Bulls had a shootaround at the Barclays Center on the first visit to Brooklyn, which makes sense for a new arena. They also tried Chelsea Pier, but heavy traffic was an issue in both cases.

This time, they skipped practice Sunday and went to John Jay College, home of the Bloodhounds, for a nearby shootaround court.

“I don’t care. I love the city, man,” Nate Robinson said of the lodging choice. “It doesn’t matter.”