Fighting back
After poor effort, Nets stun Bulls
CHICAGO — After the Nets rolled over in Sunday’s embarrassment against Minnesota, Joe Johnson said they would find out what they were made of Monday in Chicago. They held a team meeting before taking the court, challenging each other to play like a team for 48 minutes, to have one another’s backs.
The Nets rose to the challenge, gutting out a 105102 win over the Bulls at the United Center to snap a fivegame losing skid and lift sagging morale.
In winning just their second road game of the season, the Nets (820) showed grit, help defense and fourthquarter mettle. In short, all the things they had been missing. And while any win is good when your record is as poor as Brooklyn’s, a gut check on the road against a playoffcaliber team means even more.
“Yeah it does [mean a lot],” Joe Johnson told The Post. “We had a meeting this morning and talked about the Minnesota game, and what we needed to do to be better as a team. We came out and we sustained for 48 minutes. That’s been the biggest key.’’
It’s exactly what they didn’t do in Sunday’s 10085 loss to Minnesota, when players and coach Lionel Hollins admitted they didn’t compete. But they competed on Monday.
“I thought we came out from the start with a lot of fight and purpose,’’ Hollins said.
“This was a great turnaround for us. We were focused and energetic out there,’’ said Brook Lopez, whose 21 points led six in doublefigures.
Brooklyn made plays with team defense, including holding the Bulls scoreless for almost five minutes in an 110 thirdquarter run to turn a onepoint lead into an 8169 cushion. And there they were with three steals in the last three minutes, seeing the lead cut to four but never letting the Bulls get over the hump.
“We watched the tape of [Sunday] and that spoke to us, looking at ourselves and evaluating your own effort more than any speech or cursing out could do,’’ Jarrett Jack said. “We were disappointed with what we did start to finish, top to bottom and we wanted to come out here and regardless of the outcome and put out a better product.”
It was a much better product, the Nets’ defense letting them run for a change and not have to face set defenses. They swung the ball around for 26 assists, and led 5855 at halftime. But just as impressive, the Nets held Chicago scoreless for 4:55, forcing 14 straight misses, Bojan Bogdanovic’s 3pointer putting them up 8169.
Chicago closed within 9995 on a jumper by Jimmy Butler (gamehigh 24 points) with 3:15 to play. But Thaddeus Young, Wayne Ellington and Johnson had steals late, the latter poking the ball away from Derrick Rose with the Nets clinging to a 10197 lead with 1:29 left.
Three offensive rebounds helped them bleed the clock, with Jack’s free throws with 10.6 seconds left making it 10399 and essentially sealing it.
“I’m proud of them battling after the tough loss we had,’’ Hollins said. “We made shots, we put the ball on the floor, faked shots and just moved the ball. We worked harder.”
Hollins had said he knew ex-Net point guard Deron Williams would play better in Dallas and intimated he wasn’t cut out for New York. In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Williams acknowledged as much.
“It took a lot out of me, man, those three years. Some of the hardest in my life. Made me question if I even wanted to play basketball when I was done with that contract,’’ Williams said, adding later, “It’s cool. There’s a lot of people, I guess, who aren’t built for New York. New York is not for everybody.”