Four times the Brooklyn Nets and the Chicago Bulls have faced off this season. Three times the Nets have walked away losers.
Dec. 15: Bulls 83, Nets 82
Feb. 1: Nets 93, Bulls 89
March 2: Bulls 96, Nets 85
April 4: Bulls 92, Nets 90.
As my taller colleague will tell you, the only time the Nets won, the Bulls were missing both halves of their vaunted Joakim Noah-Carlos Boozer front court. Put those guys on the floor, and those four games look a lot like a Bulls sweep in the first round of the playoffs.
Key matchup: Deron Williams vs. the Bulls point guards who aren’t Derrick Rose.
Neither pint-sized Nate Robinson nor game-manager Kirk Hinrich are on D-Will’s level right now. And with the Bulls resigned to the fact that D-Rose isn’t hobbling through that door this season, it’s time for Williams to take over. Since the All-Star break, around the time his ankles received magical platelet-rich plasma therapy, D-Will has looked ready to challenge Chris Paul again for rights to be called the league’s best point guard. In the Nets final matchup against the Bulls earlier this month, he dropped 30 points on 56 percent shooting to go with 10 assists. It was a performance that still fell two points short, but it was a big improvement — in the three prior games against Chicago, he had averaged 16.3 points on a miserable 35 percent shooting, adding 5.6 assists. The Nets need the new D-Will to dominate.
X-Factor: Joe Johnson.
In the four games against the Bulls, Johnson averaged 13 points, made just five of 16 threes and shot 60 percent from the free-throw stripe — all well short of his season averages. On top of that, he turned the ball over four times per game, two more than he usually does. Shaking All-Star Luol Deng or his more-than-capable backup Jimmy Butler is a tall task, but it’s one that an elite-level offensive talent like Johnson must finally prove he can master. Joe has battled heel and quad injuries in recent months, but he appears to be healthy now. Atlanta Hawks diehards could tell story after story of ISO Joe going AWOL in the playoffs. Brooklyn presents him with a new opportunity to shape his legacy.
Matt Spolar is a nearly 6-foot-1 journalist with a middling high school basketball career who is sure the Nets win thanks to team’s top-tier guards.
