It was more a reminder than a warning.
Then again, as far as Billy Donovan was concerned, maybe it was both.
After all, in a season in which several stains have been left, a Nov. 1 loss to the Nets in Brooklyn was one of the uglier ones.
Shot poorly, defended even worse, and let a team that on paper just isn’t as talented, feel very good about itself that night.
All of that was made very clear to the Bulls players by their coach.
“Brooklyn is ahead of us in the standings, so there is an understanding from our guys that we don’t have any margins,” Donovan said Monday. “We have to play well.”
Message heard. On a night that the Nets opted to sit scoring threats Cam Johnson and Cam Thomas with bumps and bruises, what could have been a trap game for the Bulls turned into a slap game. As in a 128-102 slapping by the home team, led by Josh Giddey’s first triple-double as a Bull.
“It was cool,” Giddey said of the accomplishment. “The guys made my job easy. We played the right way. I was able to throw the ball ahead, guys made shots, got to the rim. Team effort. We did it by committee (Monday), and that’s how it’s got to be every night.”
The Bulls (9-13) can point to a dominant third quarter as the turning point.
Coming out of the halftime locker room only up six, it didn’t take long for Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine to turn a nail-biter into a laugher.
First came a Vucevic turnaround in the paint, followed up by a fadeaway from the big man. The lead was up to 15 a few minutes later when Vucevic caught a Josh Giddey alleyoop and did some damage with it.
Then it was almost like Vucevic had enough fun so slapped the hand of his tag-team partner in LaVine, and let him enter the ring.
The two-time All-Star hit a three-pointer with 4:33 left in the quarter and then a driving layup to increase the lead to 21.
By the time the smoke cleared on the stanza, the Bulls outscored the visiting team 36-22, with Vucevic scoring 11 in the third and LaVine 10. Both of them finished the quarter a plus-15 in plus/minus. A well-played checker game by the Bulls.
And maybe that was the entire point of the contest.
While the Bulls were playing checkers, simply looking to jump the Nets (9-13) in the standings, maybe, just maybe, Brooklyn was playing chess. And not speed chess like they do in the parks in the New York borough. This is a long game, and it’s more about playing capture the Flagg, as in No. 1 prospect Cooper Flagg.
The flip of the calendar to December is usually when teams start putting out feelers about what they are. The overwhelming opinion around the Nets since the 2024-25 campaign started was they would be one of around 10 teams very interested in playing not to win because of the loaded ’25 draft class.
So while the Bulls and their players were glad to have a night in which there was very little resistance in the second half, the Nets seemed very content with not resisting.
And why not?
They won four-of-five games between Nov. 19-27, but suddenly seemed to pump the brakes, now riding out a three-game losing streak.
If Bulls management truly understood what’s at stake long-term, they would soon be copying that blueprint.
Just not on Monday, where they instead opted to watch rookie Matas Buzelis score a career-high 20 points and finish with six players in double figures.
“Just keep learning,” Buzelis said of his night. “Keep progressing.”