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Brooklyn's luck runs short in 118-102 loss to Chicago

By Anthony Puccio

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Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

It's St. Patrick's Day and no disrespect to the Nets, but they could use all the luck they can get.

But it wasn't happening. Despite a tough second half comeback, the Nets fell to the Bulls,118-102, Thursday night in Chicago.

The Bulls are fighting for a playoff spot, while the Nets continue to audition their young guys. Needless to say, Chicago came out fired up and bullied the Nets around. They led by 24 with four minutes left in the first half and it looked like this one was over earlier than usual.

But as we learned on Tuesday, you don't mess with Bojan.

Bojan Bogdanovic scored 11 points in the third quarter and propelled the Nets on a 37-point quarter, which eventually sliced the 24-point deficit down to five entering the fourth quarter. Still, the Nets kept Brook Lopez and Bogdanovic on the bench until the 5:24 mark of the fourth and it haunted them. They fell down by 10 and then by 13 with three minutes left.

The comeback was fun while it lasted, but it never seemed sustainable.

Bogdanovic finished with 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting. Tuesday night, Bogdanovic finished with 44 points and prior to that, his career-high was 28 points. In March, Bogdanovic is averaging 18 points on 42 percent three-point shooting.

He's playing some of the best basketball of his career and one could be sure that it has something to do with the free-flowing offense Tony Brown has instilled since taking over.

Since February 1st - the Nets are the best three-point shooting team in the NBA at 42 percent!

Sergey Karasev was the latest player put in the spotlight on the audition stage, offering his skills to the judge, Sean Marks. In his first start of the season, Karasev had a nice night with 11 points, five rebounds (season-high) and five assists (career-high tying). But h e had a bad night shooting, going 1-of-7 from deep.

Meanwhile Sean Kilpatrick, whose auditioned for a contract the last couple of weeks, finally got a multi-year deal earlier in the day, finishing with 12 points. Kilpatrick has scored in double figures in four straight games and six of eight as a Brooklyn Net. He's averaged 14 points on 48 percent three-point shooting.

Good to see this guy locked up for the long haul.

As for Chicago, they were simply too much to handle. They knocked down 11 three-pointers and were led by Jimmy Butler (22 points) and Doug McDermott (25 points). Bogdanovic and Karasev both had nice offensive nights, but they really struggled to cover these two on the wings.

Chicago's bench put in 55 points compare to the Nets' 27 points. McDermott came off the bench almost outscored the entire Nets bench!

Brook Lopez was awfully quiet with just nine points in 31 minutes. His frontcourt partner Thaddeus Young nabbed his 28th double double with 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Next Up: Saturday, 7:00 p.m. at Detroit.

For more on the Chicago Bulls, check them out at Blog a Bull.

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