Bulls Are Low on Bodies and, Perhaps, Out of Ideas Bulls guard Nate Robinson was vomiting into a trash can in the third quarter of Game 6 against the Nets on Thursday night, but at least he was able to take the court. Forward Luol Deng, who missed the game, said on his Twitter account that he underwent a spinal tap Thursday to check for meningitis. Point guard Kirk Hinrich remained out with a calf injury. Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah played through debilitating leg injuries. If somebody in Brooklyn was sticking pins into a Bulls voodoo doll, no one would be surprised. Yet, through the fourth quarter, the Bulls had the Nets right where they wanted them. Trailing by 4 points, the Bulls pressured Joe Johnson on the perimeter as the shot clock dwindled to under five seconds. Out of options and time, he hoisted a 3-pointer that missed well short. Noah scrambled to retrieve the ball, diving on the floor to save it from going out of bounds. But instead of finding a Bulls guard, his pass whizzed by his teammates and into the lap of a courtside fan. It was a characteristic moment in the Bulls" gritty but sloppy performance. With all of their injuries, they needed to be nearly perfect. But 16 turnovers, most of them unforced, helped hand the game to the Nets, who seemed happy to do just enough to win. Bulls Coach Tom Thibodeau has often said there are enough players in his locker room to win, but the talent gap between the two teams widens with each new injury. The Nets are not at full strength, either. Johnson continues to push through pain, but plantar fasciitis in his left foot has slowed his movements and restricted him to jump shots. The team's injury issues, however, are nothing compared with what Chicago nearly overcame in Game 6. With Deng sick, the Italian player Marco Belinelli had 22 points and 7 assists, bedeviling the Nets" defense with pick-and-rolls. He is a capable player, but the Nets" soft defense turned him into the efficient engine of the Bulls" offense. As they have all series, the Nets" wings, particularly Gerald Wallace, failed to contain the ball and allowed the Bulls" guards to dribble to the middle on the pick-and-roll - violating a sacrosanct tenet of most N.B.A. defenses. Instead of offering aggressive support, the Nets" big defenders, for the most part, hang back in the paint. This approach affords plenty of space for the kind of midrange jump shots that Robinson repeatedly found during his scoring flurry in Game 4, which fueled the Bulls" comeback. In addition to problems defending basic actions, the Nets survived a number of foolish plays in the second half. There were sundry examples, but Johnson carelessly fouling Jimmy Butler beyond the 3-point line and Wallace allowing a simple post entry pass to become a turnover stood out as plays that did not suggest the Nets were locked in mentally. Despite the frustrating lack of dominance against a weakened opponent in Game 6, the Nets have clearly found some things that work on offense. Deron Williams has made decisions at full speed better than anyone else in this series, and he was terrific again in transition. Along with some slick passing, he used his size advantage to initiate early post-ups before the Bulls" help defense could set up. In half-court sets, center Brook Lopez continued to invade the heart of the Bulls" defense with expertly timed cuts to the middle of the paint. He has benefited from the Bulls" insistence on flooding the strong side of the court with defenders whenever Johnson has the ball on the wing even though Johnson's quickness is so compromised by injury that he called himself a decoy before Game 6. With under four minutes remaining Thursday, Noah left to help on Johnson and Lopez sneaked behind him for a dunk. The Bulls" defensive system is one of the most rigid in the N.B.A., and it will be interesting to see if Chicago continues to treat Johnson as a threat to drive. Thibodeau's schemes are designed to overcome individual mismatches. Defenders flood toward the ball like white blood cells, but the Bulls may be misdiagnosing the danger Johnson poses. Expect Thibodeau's team to be razor sharp in its defensive assignments and reads in Game 7, but major adjustments from either side are unlikely. After playing six consecutive games there are few secrets between these teams. The Nets" straightforward attack seeks out individual mismatches, especially targeting the diminutive Robinson. Their offense looks best at its most simple, and is especially potent any time Williams has a head of steam in transition. Without great individual creators, Chicago must tediously build possessions with good ball movement and hard screens. If the Bulls reverse momentum to win Game 7, it is likely to be with their defense. The question is whether their available personnel can hang with the likes of Williams and Lopez. All of the scheming in the world cannot make Robinson grow or Lopez shrink. The Bulls lost Game 6 because they were out of bodies. In Game 7, Thibodeau will show whether he is out of moves.