NEWSLETTER
After a tough week that featured a pair of losses to the Philadelphia 76ers, the schedule doesn’t ease up at all tonight when the Bulls welcome the Brooklyn Nets to the United Center tonight. The Nets (7-3) are a half-game ahead of the Bulls (6-3) in the Eastern Conference standings, and honestly, if you would have told me that the Bulls would stack up so well with the Nets by the numbers (more on that shortly), I would have thought that you were being a bit overzealous. But here we are!
The Bulls are back to being appointment viewing and tonight is no exception with Kevin Durant, James Harden, and the Nets standing in the way of snapping the Bulls’ current two-game skid. Piece of cake, right?
Let's get back in the W column tonight.@LiquiMolyUSA | #BullsNation pic.twitter.com/5xQQqNVpcu
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 8, 2021
Game Info
Brooklyn Nets vs. Chicago Bulls – 7:00 p.m. CT on NBC Sports Chicago (TV) and 670 The Score (Radio), NBA TV (National TV)
Stream the game online here with your cable provider.
Projected Starters
Chicago Bulls
1. Lonzo Ball
2. Zach LaVine
3. Javonte Green
4. DeMar DeRozan
5. Nikola Vucevic
Injury report: Coby White OUT (shoulder), Patrick Williams OUT (wrist)
Brooklyn Nets
1. Bruce Brown
2. James Harden
3. Kevin Durant
4. Joe Harris
5. Blake Griffin
Injury report: James Johnson QUESTIONABLE (knee), Nic Claxton OUT (illness), Kyrie Irving OUT (personal)
What to Watch For …
• If you’re looking for scoring tonight, this is the must-see matchup in the NBA with three of the league’s top five scorers this season on the floor. Oh, and that James Harden guy.
3 of the top 5 leading scorers in the NBA will be on our floor tonight.
Kevin Durant: 28.6 ppg
DeMar DeRozan: 26.8 ppg
Zach LaVine: 26.4 ppg pic.twitter.com/Bm7hla5g5l— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 8, 2021
• The Bulls and the Nets are not only separated by just a half-game in the standings, but they’re also neck-and-neck in most statistical areas as well. The Nets have a slight advantage in most areas except for free-throws made (Bulls rank No. 1 at 85.9%), blocks (tied at 5.4 per game), and steals (Bulls rank 1oth with 8.9 per game).
• Speaking of steals and blocks, the Bulls will be searching for them tonight when they try to contain Kevin Durant and James Harden. Durant has been unconscious from the mid-range this season, draining 60 percent of his shots from that area, and is averaging 28 points per game, the best in the NBA this season. But, of course, no one is going to stop Durant from scoring. Still, Billy Donovan should make sure that whoever is guarding Durant tonight is playing a physical brand of defense because the only real hope that you have of defending a star like Kevin Durant is simply the hope that you can slow him down, beat him up, or disrupt him enough to make him want to defer.
• The Nets enter this contest with a top-10 defense, so the Bulls will need to keep the ball moving tonight if they want to keep up with Brooklyn. The Bulls have shown flashes of brilliant ball movement this season, but overall they’ve been very pedestrian in the assist rate department, checking in at No. 17 entering play tonight.
• The first quarter has been a grind for the Bulls this season, so let’s get off to a fast start tonight and go from there. I’m feeling another big night for Flight 8 tonight.
Another 30 piece for Zach LaVine
32 points | 12-of-26 shooting | 9 rebs pic.twitter.com/ghLXU6WcPh
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 7, 2021
