McDermott leads Bulls to much-needed win over Nets
Every year about this time, the same old argument dominates conversations at the United Center.
Is it worth the money for an all-green Benny the Bull costume that can be worn just once a year?
Since the costume doesn't count against the salary cap, the Bulls can use their incidentals budget however they like. Wearing the traditional green St. Patrick's Day uniforms, the Bulls beat the Brooklyn Nets 118-102 on Thursday at the United Center.
The Bulls nearly squandered a 24-point lead against a Nets' squad filled with no-names. Fortunately for the home team, their most reliable scorer delivered when necessary.
Doug McDermott produced his third-straight 20-point game, finishing with 25 while hitting 5 of 8 shots from 3-point range. Before this run, McDermott had just two 20-point games in his first 99 games as an NBA player.
"We talk about this all the time with Doug. His confidence is very high level right now and he's hunting shots," coach Fred Hoiberg said. "Guys are doing a good job of finding him in transition. They're really hugging him in the half court. He's hitting that floater. It's a very high degree of difficulty shot, but he's hitting it. But the biggest thing is confidence."
Jimmy Butler scored 22 points and the Bulls got nice balance with four guys adding 12 points each. Hoiberg praised rookie big men Bobby Portis (12 points, 14 rebounds) and Cristiano Felicio (6 points, 10 rebounds) for holding down the middle with Pau Gasol missing his third straight game with a sore right knee.
If the Bulls are going to make a playoff run, now is a good time to start. Thursday's game opened a four-game homestand against sub-.500 opponents. Utah, Sacramento and New York will follow the Nets into the UC.
The Bulls (34-33) got a little bit of help when seventh-place Indiana lost to Toronto on Thursday. The Bulls are in eighth place in the East, a half-game ahead of Detroit and 1½ games behind the Pacers.
The Bulls got some helpful injury news before the game when Taj Gibson (12 points in 27 minutes) recovered from a hamstring issue in time to make the starting lineup. The previous night in Washington, Gibson played just seven minutes and sat out the second half.
They lost guard E'Twaun Moore, though, late in the first quarter with a left hamstring injury. He did not return.
For a while, it looked like the Bulls would slice through the Nets like a sharp knife through cooked cabbage. They led 47-23 with 4:25 left in the second quarter. But after scoring 37 points in the first half, Brooklyn posted 37 more in the third quarter alone and headed into the fourth trailing just 79-74.
"A lack of urgency coming out of the gate in the second half," Hoiberg said.
"I thought we had good focus early, I thought we defended well. We missed some early shots, but we guarded. Then we lost any sense of urgency in the third quarter. We lost that edge."
The Nets (19-49) never got closer than 4 points in the fourth quarter. Bojan Bogdanovic led Brooklyn with 26 points.
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