CHICAGO � If the Nets thought LeBron James was tough, wait 'til they got a load of ... uh ... Kris Dunn and the Bulls?
Twenty-four hours after vanquishing the king to earn the longest active win streak in the NBA at six games, the Nets appeared, at least on the surface, to have a somewhat easier challenge of taking on the worst team in the Eastern Conference.
But that was only on the surface. This game, after all, was the second game of a back-to-back on the road _ a near impossible win for this team in the past. They were tired, and they looked it; the offense was stagnant and the play sloppy.
And they still won.
Joe Harris hit a floater with 43 seconds left to give the Nets the lead, and Spencer Dinwiddie had a steal and hit two free throws to seal it as they gritted out a 96-93 win on Wednesday at the United Center. The Nets won the second game of a road back-to-back for only the second time in 35 tries and continued to make believers out of the league.
The Bulls didn't score in the final 3:03.
"We're not a juggernaut on back-to-backs on the road, so (it's) another good test for us after a good home performance," Atkinson said before the game. "We're going to have to grind this one out, that's my feeling."
Prophetic, those words.
Before December, the Nets had lost 33 straight games when playing the second game of a back-to-back on the road, and that win had been a mere subway ride away _ at Madison Square Garden. Chicago, the day after playing at Barclays, though, was a different animal entirely, and it looked it.
They struggled to keep up with the lowly Bulls before finally gaining some traction in the second quarter.
Dinwiddie, playing against his former team, gave the Nets their first lead since early in the game when he hit a driving layup with 4:20 left in the half to put them up 33-31. The Nets eventually went into the break up 40-39, despite the fact that the Bulls were playing without both Zach LaVine (ankle) and Jabari Parker (illness).
Dinwiddie, who had been waived by the Bulls twice and only played in five preseason games with them, had a team-high 14 points off the bench in the first half. The Bulls scored only 12 points in the second quarter _ the fewest the Nets have allowed to an opponent in a quarter this season _ and were held to 6 for 21 from the floor.
The Bulls, though, kicked off the third quarter on a 10-2 run, courtesy of back-to-back 3s from Chandler Hutchison and Ryan Arcidiacono.
The two teams exchanged the weakest of blows down the stretch, exhibiting mutual stretches of poor play and stagnant offense. The Bulls _ in the midst of a brutal rebuild that has them in the Eastern Conference basement _ seemed to be expending all their energy just to keep up, while the Nets, riding that six-game win streak, appeared to be playing down to their competition.
Rodions Kurucs was able to give the Nets a little jolt in the waning minutes of the third quarter, slamming down a rim-swinging dunk that briefly gave them a 67-65 lead with 1:09 left. It wasn't quite enough as the Bulls clawed back again, eventually bringing the game to the fourth tied at 71.
The Nets briefly took a three-point lead early in the fourth, but the Bulls converted back-to-back turnovers _ courtesy of DeMarre Carroll and Ed Davis _ to go up 79-78 and send the Nets into a timeout with eight minutes to go. That eventually kicked off an 11-2 run, though a three by Joe Harris and a layup by Kuruks got the Nets to within one with 5:16 to go.
"Tough challenge against a team that plays hard, a good defensive team," Atkinson said. "I think they show a lot of good defensive qualities. Obviously, with our young lineup it's a challenge to kind of repeat a good performance from last night."
No, not a repeat, but they'll take it.
