From the start, the Brooklyn Nets were in an offensive rhythm on Tuesday night.
With the Nets registering assists on every shot they made in the first quarter, the ball moved, the shots dropped, and Brooklyn rolled on to a 115-107 win over the Chicago Bulls at United Center.
That fast-flowing start set the tone for a night in which eight of the nine Nets who played scored in double figures and Brooklyn compiled 32 assists against just seven turnovers. It was the 25th game with at least 30 assists for the Nets this season, extending a franchise record for a team that is eighth in the NBA with 26.7 assists per game.
“That is what we do every game; 32 assists tonight, that's who we've been this whole season,” said Kevin Durant. “We've moved the ball around, but we have some explosive scorers as well. But I felt like everybody has been chipping in throughout the whole season and this is another night. You know, we got eight double figures, everybody played extremely well on the defensive side of the ball and we got a solid win.”
With the win, the Nets closed out their five-game road trip with consecutive wins and headed back to Brooklyn with a 45-24 record and a one-game lead on Milwaukee for second place in the Eastern Conference with three games remaining.
Durant led Brooklyn with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting plus eight assists, four rebounds, and three blocks.
Bruce Brown and Nic Claxton had double-doubles — the first of Claxton’s career — with Brown putting up 15 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists and Claxton notching an even 10 and 10 while shooting 5-of-7.
Brown had been listed as questionable on Monday after taking a shot to the face and suffering a nasal fracture, but he was declared available on Tuesday morning. He took the court wearing a mask for his 34th start of the season and blitzed the Bulls quickly with 15 first-half points.
“He’s just a winner,” said Nets head coach Steve Nash. “He plays so hard. Outstanding defensively. Rebounds the ball and when he’s able to fill in the gaps and take that soft space on the court where the other teams are focusing on other guys he really makes it difficult to defend us.”
Joe Harris had 17 points and five rebounds and Jeff Green had 14 points and eight rebounds. Blake Griffin scored 13 points and Mike James had 11 points, seven rebounds, and six assists.
James took on a bigger role for the night when the Nets lost Kyrie Irving for the game with 10:05 remaining in the third quarter due to a facial contusion after taking an elbow to the face from Chicago’s Nikola Vucevic in a rebound battle. Irving finished with 13 points and five assists and James ended up playing 27 minutes.
“He was great,” said Nash. “We hit a little dry patch there with that second unit, but he I thought weathered it, and was able to get us a couple good looks, a couple free throws, a basket and some assists. And so you know, I just thought great energy, played hard defensively and pushed the ball in transition. So he made a few plays for us for sure, which was great.”
After closing out the Nuggets with a fourth-quarter defensive stand on Saturday, the Nets limited Chicago to 40.6 percent shooting.
“I just thought we brought energy, man,” said Blake Griffin. “Since the second half of the Denver game we just have been a more confident defensive team. When we’re more aggressive, when we’re the ones playing more physical, that just gets us going. We can score the ball but it helps us on offense too, get a stop and get out in transition or even when you kind of have that rhythm and that momentum going defensively it helps you get into things a little bit more.”
The Nets quickly built a double-digit lead after making four of their first five 3-pointers, with Irving’s triple putting Brooklyn up 18-7 just over four minutes into the game. The Nets went on to make 11 of their first 16 shots in going up 30-20 and then leading 32-23 after the first quarter.
Leading 43-34 in the second quarter, the Nets put together a 10-2 run that began with Durant’s turnaround jumper and Brown’s inside finish. After Daniel Theis scored for Chicago, Harris converted a four-point play after making a 3-pointer, and Harris scored off a Durant feed for a 53-36 lead on the way to that 13-point lead at the break.
Chicago cut the Brooklyn lead to nine points four minutes into the third quarter, but the Nets got back-to-back 3-pointers from Griffin and Durant. After a Theis 3-pointer for the Bulls, Claxton tipped in a rebound and James hit a 3-pointer to make it an 11-3 Brooklyn run and an 85-78 Nets lead. After scoring the final six points of the quarter, Brooklyn took a 93-84 lead into the fourth.
With a 13-3 run, the Bulls closed within 105-97 with three minutes remaining before Durant scored for Brooklyn. Chicago was back within six points, trailing 107-101 with 1:39 remaining before Green scored inside for the Nets and Durant made two free throws with 23 seconds to go for a 111-101 lead.
“The ball was going in, which is always nice, but I thought our pace and intention was there,” said Nash. “Tried to make quick decisions and clearly very difficult to guard. The ball doesn’t always go in, but the opportunities were there to convert good looks. So I was really proud of the way they moved it overall and obviously 32 assists and seven turnovers is outstanding.”