Basketball Daily

The New Jersey Nets and the Chicago Bulls had quite the battle on Saturday night at the United Center.  There were 7 lead changes and 7 ties throughout the game.  Both teams had runs and lulls which made this quite interesting, as no one team had a clear advantage.  The Bulls did pull ahead down the stretch with less than 5 minutes left in the game and won with a final score of 113-104.  Both teams are mediocre at best this season with records around 500%.

The starting Bulls lineup contributed fairly equal with Ben Gordon having 29 points, Derrick Rose with 22 points, Drew Gooden with 14 points, Luol Deng with 11 points and center, Aaron Gray was held scoreless, but only played 12 minutes.  Tyrus Thomas was the high man off the bench with 16 points and Larry Hughes was right behind him with 10 points.  I myself have been surprised this year that Chicago hasn’t played more consistent.  With the East getting stronger, the Bulls better pickup their game if they want to make the Playoffs.

The New Jersey Nets defeat the Los Angeles Clippers and move to a record of 6 wins and 6 losses on the season, while LA drops to a 2 and 11 record.  After the first quarter, the Nets took control of the game and maintained around a 10 point lead for the entirety.  The long range ball was shot very well at 11 for 19 finishing the game at 57% for the Nets team.

The top scorer for the Nets was Yi Jianlian with 27 points and Vince Carter right on his tail with 26 points.  All five of the NJ starters finished in double figures and Keyon Dooling was top man off the bench with 8 points.  The Nets played a well rounded game with great poise throughout and finished with a fairly easy victory at home with the final score ending at 112 to 95.

The 33 year old forward Keith Van Horn got waived by the New Jersey Nets reducing their roster to the 15 player maximum.  Keith tried to prolong his career but apparently didn’t perform up to the expectations of the Nets coaches.  Keith hasn’t even appeared in a regular season game since the 2005-2006 season.

His career averages over the course of 9 years in the pros and 5 different teams are 44% field goal shooting, 36% three point shooting, 83% free throw shooting, 16.0 points per game, 6.8 rebounds per game, 1.6 assists per game and 0.8 steals per game.  Van Horn’s NBA career is probably over unless another team signs him soon, which is unlikely.