Good Friday, the Nets made some great shots.
No, just do some historical shooting.
Brooklyn defeated Chicago 125-108 in front of a packed Barclays Center crowd of 17,894, doing it with a record-breaking barrage from behind the arc.
The Nets made 18 of 24 3-pointers in the second half, tying the NBA record for most 3-pointers in a first half and setting a franchise record of 16 this season against the Bulls on Nov. 26, 2023. broke.
Something about Chicago brings out the best in the Nets’ shooters. And this was by far his best, making 25 of 44 from deep in the game.
“It was like everyone got fired up at the same time. So it’s good to get our players into a flow like that. It’s just beautiful to watch and that’s the flow. It was just like an out-of-body experience. It’s a great experience,” interim coach Kevin Ollie said. “That second half, from a 3-point standpoint, making those type of 3s and making them that way was really beautiful to watch and it looked like you wouldn’t miss it.
“I don’t know if 25 3s is sustainable, but I’m going to pray about it. I’m going to go to church before the game on Sunday and pray about it. I don’t know if it’s sustainable. But the The process is sustainable. … I don’t know about 25 3s, I’m not going to count on that every night, but I want to trust our process and trust it.”
Cam Thomas overcame a slow start and Ayo Dosunmu’s troublesome long-arm defense to finish with a team-high 28 points.
Dennis Schroder regularly outscored Chicago’s Coby White with 27 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
Mikal Bridges scored 25 points, and both were 7-of-11 from behind the arc.
“That was really crazy. I wouldn’t have expected it in the first half. It just goes to show that if you keep playing the full game, eventually the shots are going to fall,” Thomas said. Ta. “So, credit to everyone for sticking with it.
“Absolutely. When you have stops like that and everyone’s starting from behind the arc, it’s contagious. And everyone feeds off of that.”
With this win, the Nets (29-45) were able to put their losses back for a while.
After wins over battered Toronto and talent-poor Washington, they beat a (mostly) solid opponent to extend their winning streak to three straight.
Chicago (35-39) sits in ninth place in the East.
The Nets held the tragic number to four.
The Hawks did nothing Friday night.
Brooklyn trails Atlanta by 5 1/2 games for the last play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, with eight days left on the schedule.
DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with a game-high 31 points.
Brooklyn continued its onslaught, taking a 59-52 lead with Nikola Vucevic’s layup 1:52 into the second half.
The Nets went on a 17-4 blitz over the next 2 minutes, 46 seconds. After Schroder set up Thomas’ game-tying 3-pointer, Dorian Finney-Smith stole a bad pass from Alex Caruso.
Schroder then followed with a long ball of his own, giving the Nets a 69-63 lead with 7:02 left in the third quarter, and the Bulls called a timeout.
The Nets made just 7 of 20 3-pointers in the first half, but made 6 of 7 from deep in the first five minutes of the third quarter.
It found a lead they never relinquished.
“In the third quarter, our performance stopped. I think all those shots came from confidence. We were stopped,” Bridges said. “We just played good defense. I think that’s what it was. Yeah, we’ll make the shots.”
The Nets saw their cushion shrink to just 86-85 by the end of the period.
But they never showed the nerves that have so often plagued them this season, calmly and relentlessly extending their lead to double digits.
Schroder hit Bridges’ 3-pointer to make it 112-102 with 4:30 left.
Bridges then hit a three from the inbounds to eventually reach 14 points, making it 122-108 with 1:05 left. The final margin was the largest of the night.
