Fighting Out of Corner, Bulls Edge Nets to Win Round 2 on Points The festive sounds of fireworks and drums in Saturday's playoff-opening celebration at Barclays Center were replaced on Monday with the slap of a hand across the wrist, the thwack of a body landing firmly on the parquet floor. Forget a sea of blackouts by Nets fans. This was black-and-blue, Chicago Bulls basketball at its gritty best. The style and tenor of this first-round series reversed course from the Nets" offensive showcase in Game 1. Chicago wizened up, buckled down and sent the Nets a stern message in a 90-82 win. The series now heads to Chicago for Game 3 on Thursday with the Nets wondering what happened to the easy baskets and crowd-pleasing dunks that marked their 106-point performance in Game 1. On Monday, they shot 35.4 percent, and only 4 of 21 from 3-point range. "I hope it grounds us," Nets forward Gerald Wallace said. We had an amazing night where we probably could've beat anybody anywhere in Game 1. Then we had a night where we struggled offensively. The lasting image from Monday's game, for the Bulls at least, might be Chicago's center Joakim Noah, hobbled for months with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, letting loose a guttural scream and pointing his arms skyward as he left the court after the game. Noah epitomized precisely what Nets Coach P. J. Carlesimo had forecast his team would need to defend against Monday: an aggressive Bulls team, sensing their backs pushing toward the wall, playing with an edge of desperation after a Game 1 embarrassment. Carlesimo has coached through enough series to know this was coming. He even tried making his team believe they had lost Game 1. Anything to try to match Chicago's desire to even up the series. Ultimately, nothing worked. "We said we needed to play with the same desperation, but we really didn't," point guard Deron Williams said. They did, and we didn't. It was clear early Monday that the Bulls had that edge. They tightened up their interior defense and played a much more physical style. The Nets fell behind, 8-2, after missing their first six shots, and though they hit 7 of their next 12, they trailed throughout the first half. The crowd, such a vital external element in Game 1, was quieted. So was Williams, who had been such a force Saturday with his penetration and playmaking ability. On Monday, Williams was 1 of 9 from the field - including 0 for 5 from 3-point range - and had 8 points. He said that the Bulls did a better job contesting his drives but added that he was not aggressive enough. "I'm not going to play like this again," he said. He was not the only one struggling. Joe Johnson was 6 of 18 from the field, and the Nets were outscored inside, 42-30. They missed 10 of their first 12 3-point attempts. Bulls Coach Tom Thibodeau, known for his defensive planning, had his players ready. He complimented the Nets" offensive versatility before the game, but there was a sense that - after a couple of sleepless nights - he would come up with a few solutions. "I thought we came out with more intensity today," Thibodeau said. I thought we were able to sustain it much better. It's only one game, so we have to look at the film and make our corrections. Chicago built a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter as Nate Robinson and Nazr Mohammed played big roles off the bench. The Nets were held to 2 of 19 shooting in the third quarter and outscored by 22-11, their second-lowest offensive output in a quarter this season. "It had nothing to do with their defense," Wallace said. We had a lot of open shots, a lot of drives to the basket. They just didn't fall. We were too content with what we did in Game 1 and figured we'd just come in here and it'd be the same result. In the fourth quarter, C. J. Watson and Andray Blatche got something going for the Nets, who stayed in striking distance. Johnson made two 3-pointers as part of an 8-0 run to bring the Nets to 80-76 with 4 minutes 11 seconds left. The crowd, supplied with black rally towels, awoke, and the towels started fluttering. But the Nets got no closer. A driving layup by Noah with two minutes left put the Bulls back ahead by 8. Noah snarled and grimaced as he sauntered back up the court, clearly in pain, pushing himself through each minute. "Joakim has given us everything he has," Thibodeau said. Noah finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks in 29 minutes, playing longer than Thibodeau said he would allot him before the game. It was an effort tinged with desperation. That is the nature of Game 2. And now the series is back to Square 1. In an interview with Bloomberg Television in Moscow on Friday, before the Nets won Game 1, the team's owner, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, said he thought the Nets still needed "one more good player" to win a title. P. J. Carlesimo, informed of Prokhorov's remark Monday, joked: "You think I would disagree with Mr. Prokhorov? That is an astute observation. Carlesimo added, taking a more serious tone, "I love the 15 players that we have."