Cam Thomas delivers Nets to victory over Bulls with fourth-quarter flurry

The Nets were in danger Friday night, looking tired from a third game in four days. Then Cam Thomas woke them up during the final four minutes against the Bulls.

Thomas scored 10 points in a 2-minute, 11-second span. His final basket of the stretch was a 33-foot three-pointer that was the dagger that sealed a 120-112 win at Barclays Center.

Thomas finished with 32 points. Before that shot from the Nets’ logo went in, he walked away with a glare while his teammates and fans reacted wildly.

“These are the moments you dream of,” Thomas said. “You just want to be able to be the guy to take the team home and have everybody’s trust in you to make the right play and just know that you’re gonna take the team home the best way you can.”

Before that moment, Thomas had missed eight of his previous 11 shots. He had cooled off from a 13-point first quarter but then got going with the Nets (3-3) clinging to a 108-107 lead with 4:03 remaining.

Thomas made two free throws, a layup and a three-pointer. Then came the longer three that helped the Nets get their first winning streak of the season.

“With CT sometimes, his superpower is scoring,” coach Jordi Fernandez said. “So I just gotta sit back and I have the best seat in the house to just watch him do what he does. He made a crazy shot from almost half-court. And I can’t coach that. That’s him being him.”

Fernandez was quick to note that the defense was just as important. The Bulls (3-3) had only 22 points in the fourth quarter after rallying from a 10-point third-quarter deficit to tie the score at 85 with a 20-10 run.

The Bulls also were 3-for-19 on three-pointers in the second half. The Nets may have given back a 17-point lead, but they tightened up in the final frame. Trailing 98-94, the Nets went on a 10-0 run to retake the lead for good.

Ben Simmons had a season-high 11 assists, including seven in the second half, to go with eight rebounds and eight points. It was easily his best game of the season.

Nic Claxton had 12 points and nine rebounds in a reserve role after sitting out Wednesday because of injury management. Ziaire Williams added 10 points.

Nikola Vucevic had 28 points for Chicago and shot 10-for-11. Zach LaVine added 21 points.

For the second straight game, the Nets’ Keon Johnson added a spark off the bench. In a five-minute stretch in the second quarter, Johnson made all five shot attempts, had a steal and added a block on Josh Giddey.

Dennis Schroder had only nine points, ending a streak of three games with at least 28 points. He added seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals, and Thomas did the heavy lifting to carry the Nets after giving back an early lead.

“They’re a good team,” Fernandez said. “We saw ourselves down four [in the fourth quarter] and then we responded with a 10-0 run. So that’s basically what you want to do, right? You see adversity, come together, and then you respond.”

Whitehead fine with plan

It wasn’t a surprise this week when the Nets assigned second-year guard Dariq Whitehead to the G League. It always seemed like the best way for him to earn playing time and continue his road back from shin surgery.

Whitehead, who played only two minutes this season, was fine with the plan. He knows being with the Long Island Nets will help him get comfortable on the court after three surgeries, including two on his right foot, since the summer of 2022.

“For me, it’s amazing,” Whitehead told Newsday this week. “Being out two years, you gotta have some time. You can just go play and play a lot of minutes [in the G League]. So for me, it’s amazing and I’m looking at it as an opportunity to get back in a rhythm and find things.”

After playing only two games last season, Whitehead often has said he is treating this season like his true rookie season. He struggled with his shooting in Summer League but chalked it up to his first extended playing time in months.

In that sense, his path is no different than what Jalen Wilson and Noah Clowney had to do last season before earning playing time. Whitehead hopes to find the game that made him a coveted five-star recruit at Duke two years ago.

“You may have more minutes, you may have the opportunity to take more shots, but that doesn’t change anything within the plan we have,” Fernandez said this week. “So we want to see that, we want to see him grow, we want to see him be a pro.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Nets for Newsday. He previously covered Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.