CHICAGO — On a night Chicago’s focus was divided between the Bears and Bulls, Kevin Durant made his way to the West Side for a must-watch, early season game.
It was a shame the Bears were playing a Monday night game in Pittsburgh, forcing fans to either pass on the Bulls game against the Brooklyn Nets or find two screens and try to multitask.
Durant is the best player in the NBA right now, the Nets are an Eastern Conference power and the Bulls need to learn how to beat such teams to get where they want to be come April.
“You just understand what you’re going up against now,” Bulls guard Zach LaVine said before the game. “Instead of having one guy or two guys, you’re guarding three or four, so it’s a little bit of (thinking), ’Damn, they’re good.’
“But it’s fun because you get to go out there and play against those guys and get to see where you stack up as well. I’ve never been afraid of competition.”
Durant put on the kind of show that has been his trademark in the Nets’ 118-95 loss to the Bulls, going inside and posting up with hands in his face, hitting a 3 over Lonzo Ball and generally looking like he wasn’t even working up a sweat. He finished with 38 points.
LaVine, meanwhile, tried to keep the Bulls from being their own worst enemies as they struggled from behind the arc for much of the game, a recurring theme of late.
But in another recurring theme, they outscored the Nets 42-17 in the fourth quarter. DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with 28 points, LaVine added 24 and Ayo Dosunmu scored 15 off the bench.
Coach Billy Donovan said this stretch of games — which includes the Golden State Warriors on Friday in San Francisco and the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers next Sunday and Monday at the Staples Center — should give the Bulls a chance to “find out a lot more about ourselves.”
The Nets came into town riding a five-game winning streak, shooting 50.9% from the field in that span and converting a league-leading 42.1% of their 3-point attempts. The Bulls were 2-3 over their previous five after their 4-0 start, shooting 45.7% in those games, including only 31.3% on 3s.
They’ve been forced to play catch-up for the most part, rebounding from a 19-point deficit to beat the Boston Celtics but falling short against the New York Knicks and in back-to-back losses to the Philadelphia 76ers
“Every game, every experience helps us grow,” Donovan said. “When you get tested and challenged in different ways — and certainly Philadelphia has been the top of the East right now and it’s been incredibly impressive what they’ve done with the absence of some really, really key players — the consistency part of our team playing together certainly shines a light on not being able to really get away with having lapses in games.”
Only 3,434 fans were allowed into the United Center when these teams met last May because of COVID-19 restrictions, and Monday’s atmosphere was markedly different.
The Bulls came out on fire in the opening quarter thanks to LaVine’s 12 points, taking a 35-27 lead. But they went into a hole in the second quarter, shooting 5-for-24 from the field and 0-for-8 from 3-point range. The Nets led 57-51 at the half, hitting 8 of 19 3s to the Bulls’ 3 of 17.
Durant is the head of another three-headed monster in Brooklyn, leading the league in scoring and dominating like he has everywhere he has been. But Donovan, who coached Durant for one season in Oklahoma City, pointed out he also is an “unselfish” player.
When the Nets were in town back in May, Durant scored 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting and contributed a team-high eight assists in a 115-107 win over the Bulls.
“If you start sending a lot of people after him, with his size and his vision and his IQ, he’s a very willing passer,” Donovan said. “That’s what really makes him an elite player.”
Javonte Green was given the task for much of the first half, and it was a thankless one for sure. Durant scored 15 first-half points, going 5-for-8 from the field.
LaVine, who played alongside Durant on the gold-medal-winning U.S. team at the Tokyo Olympics, said Durant is almost immune from any kind of defense thrown at him.
“It’s different because he’s like nobody else,” LaVine said. “Defense doesn’t really affect him. And that’s the thing that, even talking today, we’re going to play some really good defense on him. And he’s going to shoot some shots over double teams or contested hands that he really doesn’t see. It’s just his special ability to negate the defense and not let it affect him.”
The Nets are the latest NBA super team, and even without Kyrie Irving — who has had to sit out because he isn’t vaccinated — most consider them the team to beat in the East. Irving’s absence was a gift for the Bulls, though LaVine said he would’ve liked to have seen the whole complement of Brooklyn stars on the court.
“I mean, we always want to have people playing in the NBA,” LaVine said. “That’s their job. It’s unfortunate he’s not playing right now. I think we all love and appreciate Kyrie’s game.
“I’m not going to say that I want him out there to help them win, but it’s always good to play teams that have all their players there because obviously if you go and beat them at their full strength, it shows how good you are.”
Unlike LaVine, Durant has had another prime scoring option or two in the lineup for most of his career, whether it was Russell Westbrook and James Harden in Oklahoma City, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson with Golden State or Harden and Irving in Brooklyn. So even when Durant is having a rare off night, he always knows someone else can go on a scoring binge.
But this is the first time in LaVine’s eight-year career he’s joined by another prolific scorer in DeRozan.
“Like I’ve said, this is the most fun I’ve had playing basketball in a very long time,” LaVine said. “We have an extremely talented team. We’re working through some of the kinks of playing with each other and things like that. But you can see the talent and how good this team can be, so I’m having fun.”
