Nets miss KD, Beard as Bulls roll B’klyn
The Nets appeared to get caught looking past the Bulls and toward the looming return of their own Big Three.
The Nets had neither the pace they needed on offense nor the activity they needed on defense. The result was an ugly 115-107 defeat on Sunday at United Center, losing their fourgame winning streak and (briefly) their place atop the Eastern Conference.
“We just weren’t real sharp, didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, didn’t have the requisite pace for our team to be as dynamic as we are offensively,” coach Steve Nash said. “But more importantly, defensively, we need to be more active, scramble more, be more decisive. [We] played at their pace. Not a great performance by us.”
Playing without Kevin Durant and James Harden, Nash experimented with a big lineup that featured LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin and admitted he didn’t love it. It worked early on, spotting them a nine-point cushion in the first quarter before they were outscored, 32-18, in the second.
“We weren’t quite sharp enough,” Nash said. “We didn’t move the ball enough, make quick enough decisions, get downhill and really stretch them out.”
The Nets (34-16) lost both Tyler Johnson and Landry Shamet in the fourth quarter. Then they lost the game, falling a half-game behind Philadelphia for first in the East before the 76ers lost, 116-100, to Memphis. The Nets and Sixers remain tied atop the conference standings.
“I didn’t like it a lot. We didn’t play with enough pace, not enough movement and activity,” Nash said. “We had a hard time spacing them out because we were a little bogged down. We were playing in tight spaces instead of making them guard in big spaces. Just wasn’t a great offensive performance from us, obviously.”
Kyrie Irving had 24 points and 15 assists, and Jeff Green added 21 points off the bench. But the Nets couldn’t answer a mid-game barrage from a Chicago team that came in having dropped six straight and eight of its last nine.
Zach LaVine had a game-high 25 points. Nikola Vucevic had 22 points and 13 rebounds, while Tomas Satoransky added 19 points and 11 assists for a Bulls team that shot 55.1 percent.
The Nets jumped ahead, 24-15, behind Irving, Aldridge and Griffin. They still led 37-35 midway through the second quarter after an Irving turnaround bank shot, but that’s when things went sideways.
“I just thought we were a little bit clustered sometimes. We were trying to figure each other out and different lineups,” Griffin said. “It was a fine start. We just need more time together.”
SAN ANTONIO — Jordan Spieth tapped in for par to win the British Open for his third major and 11th victory in just five years on the PGA Tour. He never imagined he would go 1,351 days before he felt that way again.
He went 82 events on tour without winning. Once the No. 1 player, he was headed out of the top 100 in the world. And now he’s back.
Spieth ended a mystifying slump Sunday by giving himself birdie chances and making the most of them, closing with a 6-under 66 to hold off Charley Hoffman for a two-shot victory in the Valero Texas Open.
“There’s peaks and valleys in this sport, but I never expected to go this long,” Spieth said. “Back then, in between wins, maybe I took things more for granted than I should have. It’s very difficult to win out here and I’ll certainly enjoy this one as much as I have any other.”