See Red? Bulls Late 4th Quarter Rally Enables 3-1 Commanding Series Lead.
Saturday afternoon in the United Center, many Chicago Bulls faithful were hoping their team would “upset” the Brooklyn Nets once again to move closer to the second round. The Nets who won game 1 in blowout fashion looked like they were finally ready to live up to all of the free agent signings during the off-season with acquiring Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace but the team hasn’t been able to transcended their talent to victories.
On paper, the Nets are obviously the better team but with new players this year and the firing of Avery Johnson earlier in the season, the Nets still haven’t gelled together as a collective unit which might take a first round loss this year to the Bulls for the team to gain experience together and cohesiveness.
We’re just going to skip to the fun which was the fourth quarter where the Nate Robinson show officially became. Nate gave us the best playoff performance we see since the LeBron James 2007 playoff homecoming against the Detroit Pistons, as he scored 23 points in the fourth quarter alone nearly breaking Michael Jordan’s record at 24.
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Nate single-handedly brought the Bulls back into the game, who were down 14 with three minutes remaining the quarter. Robinson went on a tear making a host of off-balanced shots, with some looking question, but Nasty Nate had the hot hand and was on fire. He went on to get fouled by Deron Williams shooting from long distance and would make all three before making one more 14-foot jumper to bring them to within two.
Nets called a timeout and would turn over the ball with on a 5-second inbound. Nate would control the offense with the Brooklyn anticipating another magical shot from Robinson, but he would dish to an open Carlos Boozer under the rim for an easy layup and the game was finally tied.
On the next Nets ensuing possession, the Bulls would foul Brook Lopez, who went on to make both free throws. Nate Robinson would have one last shot to send the game into overtime, as he would dish out to the open Loul Deng in the corner for a three. He would miss but Joakim Noah would get the offensive rebound put it back up for another game-tying bucket to send the game in OT.
In the first Overtime, Nate would continue his heroics to making another 21-foot jumper, but that was before Joe Johnson made a difficult driving jumper to tie the game. We would have a little déjà vu with Nate making one of the most memorable off-balanced shots we’ve ever seen almost from deep with only 2 seconds left. Joe Johnson would send the game into another overtime making jumper with Gerald Wallace credited for the assist.
Double OT was upon us but with only a minute left, Nate would foul out leaving Chicago up 4. Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez would rally to send the game into a third OT, but fatigue and the Bulls bench coming up in crucial moments for big game buckets would send the boys in black back to Brooklyn down 3-1.
Brooklyn now has their backs on the walls facing an elimination home game on Monday night. The Nets starters played a great game with every starter scoring over 15 points; but their bench would only score 22 points in comparison to Nate’s 34 alone. The Bulls bench finished with 57 points with Derrick Rose watching from the sidelines. Speaking of which, if the Bulls win this series we could definitely see Rose’s return for a shot at beating the defending champion Miami Heat, who’s co-captain Dwayne Wade is dealing with injuries at the moments.
The playoffs re now in full swing after a lackluster first weekend with teams finally gearing up at legitimate chance at title aspirations with key injuries in both conferences.
Win or Go HOME!