Jarring conclusion for Bulls in season opener
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Halloween equivalent to the Bulls' opening-night performance in New Jersey would be if someone spent a month preparing the perfect costume, then forgot to bring it to the party.
The Bulls have talked about how well things went during training camp. They had a month to prepare for the Nets, then turned in a dismal first half filled with poor shooting, frequent fouls and ghastly turnovers.
They almost salvaged a bad situation. But after erasing a 17-point third-quarter deficit, the Bulls lost 112-103 in overtime and suffered their 12th consecutive defeat at New Jersey.
"Bad games happen," Bulls guard Ben Gordon said. "We definitely should have more energy on opening night. There's no excuse for that."
Bouncing back after a tough start is a familiar script for the Bulls, and coach Scott Skiles is clearly getting tired of it. Asked if he was encouraged by the comeback, Skiles answered sarcastically, "Better give me the game ball then, don't you think?"
The Bulls trailed 96-89 with two minutes left, then scored the final 7 points of regulation. Andres Nocioni's 3-pointer tied the score with 39.8 seconds remaining.
After Vince Carter (24 points) badly missed a corner jumper, the Bulls had a chance to win. But Gordon airballed a 3-pointer with Carter in his face. Ben Wallace caught the ball under the basket, but his follow attempt was off target.
"I think (the play) kind of got screwed up a little bit," Gordon said. "We didn't really execute it the way it was supposed to be. I ended up taking a forced shot. There's supposed to be a guy cutting to the hoop, and we got mixed up in what we were supposed to do."
The late-game star for New Jersey was third-year guard Antoine Wright, who averaged 4.5 points last season. He poured in 14 of his career-high 21 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
The Bulls never led in overtime after Wallace started the extra session by missing a pair of free throws. Wright hit a 3-pointer on New Jersey's first possession, then the Bulls closed within a point on three occasions.
When Richard Jefferson (29 points) hit a tough one-hander, the Nets led 105-102 with 1:17 left. After a Carter steal, Jefferson added a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 6 points with 37.6 seconds on the clock.
The tense finish may not have been necessary if the Bulls could have avoided the sloppy start. At one point in the first half, the Bulls missed 12 of 13 shots from the field. But the worst stretch came late in the second quarter when they coughed up 3 straight turnovers on bad passes.
Thabo Sefolosha committed 2 of those turnovers, then didn't see any action in the second half until the final seconds of overtime.
Kirk Hinrich (14 points) was in foul trouble all night and collected his sixth in the final minute of overtime.
After missing 8 of 10 shots in the first half, Gordon heated up to score 16 points in the third quarter and led the Bulls on a 16-3 run that tied the game with 1:57 left in the third. Luol Deng added 22 points, 11 rebounds and 4 steals for the visitors.
"It's a long season. It's 82 games," Deng said. "You can't really put your head down on this game, especially going to overtime at their place against a team we've struggled against."