Bulls vs. Nets game preview and thread: will Bulls suffer effect of the dead coach bounce?

Exciting high-profile matchup tonight in Brooklyn, as the Bulls are visiting the Nets and it’ll be on TNT. Per the rules, though, this does not qualify as a #TNTBulls game as it’s on the road. Brooklyn played last night at home, and won versus the Pacers. So the Bulls have the rest advantage but they did have to travel.

And despite that win, Brooklyn just fired their coach! Steve Nash is out, a couple weeks after Kevin Durant wanted. Former Magic head coach Jacque Vaughn is the interim starting today.

Yet for as much as the Nets are getting rightfully pilloried for their slow start, if they beat the Bulls tonight both teams will have an identical 3-5 record...yikes.

The Nets have gotten some positive momentum on the court recently with the returns of superlative shooters Joe Harris and (for one game, anyway) Seth Curry. And the inverse positive impact of seeing broken Ben Simmons sidelined with a knee injury.

The Nets defense is still ultimately garbage, last in the entire league so far. Some of that is them mis-casting Simmons as a big man defender, and just having a lot of bad/lazy defenders from their ‘stars’ on down.

The Bulls, meanwhile, have been categorized by slow starts and non-clutch finishes. Will they address the first issue with a lineup change? I suppose it depends on the injury report.

I could see a game that goes to script: Bulls go down early, then just get guys on the court that will try harder and take advantage of worse competition, and the Nets will just kinda give up because they’re frauds.

Injury Report:

It’s another back-to-back situation for the Bulls this week, so Zach-watch is in effect. News dropped this morning from his personal PR team that Zach LaVine is going to play tonight, and sit tomorrow at home against the Hornets.

Elsewhere, Andre Drummond is OUT still with the shoulder injury he suffered 2 games ago. Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White are both questionable.

For the Nets, Simmons is out again, as is Seth Curry

Game Time: 6:30 Central, TNT