A stellar first quarter wasted as Bulls continue finding ways to lose

NEW YORK – It was going so well.

The Bulls were finally playing like artists, and Sunday’s first quarter would be their masterpiece.

The three-pointer was falling, the basketball was moving, and the defense was suffocating.

But like a small child with a new fragile toy, they couldn’t help themselves. Just like that a 21-point first-quarter lead was rammed into the wall, thrown at big brother’s head, and slammed into the toilet to see if it could float.

In the end all that was left was a worthless pile of junk that was the 118-109 loss to the Nets.

No refund available.

“It is tough when you’re 5-13 just 18 games in,’’ veteran center Nikola Vucevic said. “It’s not what we expected, it’s not what we thought it would be, but it’s the reality of it and we’ve got to face it. The only way out of it is we stick together and try and turn it around.

“It’s not going to be easy. The schedule doesn’t get easier, what’s ahead of us, but we’ve just got to find a way. We put ourselves in this position and we’re the only ones that can get us out of it.’’

The sad part of the fourth straight loss and seventh in their last eight games was they finally seemed to understand the urgency of a quick start.

It’s usually the Bulls that start off in 22-3 holes, but against Brooklyn the shoe was forced to fit on the other foot.

A beautifully designed alley-oop play to Zach LaVine to start the game, followed by a fireworks show of three-pointers raining down on the home team. By the time the smoke cleared, the Bulls had built a seemingly insurmountable 21-point first-quarter lead.

Nothing is what it seems with this team, though.

A Lonnie Walker three-pointer followed quickly by a Spencer Dinwiddie floater with the foul to start the second, and just like that the Nets had cut the deficit to just 12. They were far from done, outscoring the Bulls 16-4 over the next four minutes to tie the game, mixing in a zone on the defensive end that messed with the Bulls’ flow.

When Royce O’Neale hit a three-pointer with 51 seconds left in the first half, Brooklyn was up 10, making the Bulls only the second team since the 1996-97 season to lead by 20-points or more in the first quarter, only to trail by 10 or more in the second, joining the 2015 Raptors.

Poor company to join.

And by the time the Nets went into the locker room they had hit 11 threes in that second stanza alone, on their way to 25 on the night. The most the Bulls have ever given up in franchise history.

“We got hurt on the communication piece on a lot of their slip-outs,’’ coach Billy Donovan said of the changing of momentum in that first half. “There were clearly a bunch of threes that rotation-wise they were left wide open and they knocked them down.’’

That communication piece was what bothered Vucevic, especially since there were key defensive breakdowns in the Toronto loss on Friday as well.

“We don’t do a good enough job communicating to each other on what we have to do,’’ Vucevic said. “Or honoring the (defensive) call that someone calls. Even if it’s wrong we’ve got to honor whoever if that person feels it’s the right call.’’

The Bulls did get the game down to just five points in the third and eight in the fourth, but could never run down the Nets and grab the momentum from the first quarter.

“Guys are professional here,’’ LaVine added. “Obviously we’re all frustrated because we’re losing, but we support each other, in the gym working every day, encouraging one another. You just got to get through it. No one is going to help us do it.’’