Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving has had a couple of rough games against the Chicago Bulls this season. In the first game, a 108-99 Bulls win, he had just four points on 2-for-12 shooting from the field. In Wednesday’s 121-112 loss to Chicago, he scored 25 points, but it was on 10-of-24 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 shooting from three-point land.
Wednesday’s struggles wasn’t just limited to Irving though. Outside of Kevin Durant (44 points) and Seth Curry (22 points), the rest of the Nets, including Irving, combined to shoot 19-of-58 (32.7%) from the field. The interesting thing is, most of the missed shots, especially the three-pointers, were either open or wide open. So, it was just one of those nights where Brooklyn didn’t shoot well and their defense couldn’t carry them to victory.
That, among other things, is a valuable lesson for the Nets to learn as they move forward with the rest of this season. Irving spoke postgame about this loss being a learning experience more than anything else:
“When you have multiple possessions throughout the game, it’s a three-point game, five-point game, but they’re (the Bulls) shooting 55%, 53% from the field, we haven’t broken their rhythm as of yet, makes the game a lot tougher. We put ourselves in a deep hole again, like I said, but, for us, this is another learning experience. Whether we won or lost this game, it’s just a learning experience for us to get ready for the bigger challenges ahead.”
The Nets came into this game on a 12-game winning streak, but will have to start a new streak on Friday at the New Orleans Pelicans.
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Player grades: Kevin Durant scores 44 as Nets lose to the Bulls 121-112
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NBA Twitter reacts to the Brooklyn Nets’ 121-112 loss to the Chicago Bulls
Story originally appeared on Nets Wire
