Brooklyn Nets enjoy Brook-Lin connection on alley-oop

Jeremy Lin found Brook Lopez for an alley-oop out of the pick-and-roll in the Brooklyn Nets’ Saturday game against the Chicago Bulls.

The Brooklyn Nets haven’t seen much of Jeremy Lin in the first season of his three-year contract, but they’ve enjoyed seeing him back at full health these last couple of weeks.

We haven’t had many opportunities to make this obvious pun when he links up with Brook Lopez on a pick-and-roll finish, but Saturday with the Chicago Bulls in town, Nets fans got to enjoy the Brook-Lin connection.

On a pick-and-roll with Lopez early in the third quarter, Lin found his big man cutting to the basket after the Bulls defenders double-teamed him. The former founder of Linsanity threw a perfect lob to his center, who finished the dunk and gave Brooklyn a 53-46 advantage.

In Brooklyn’s final home game of the season, the Nets got off to a hot start, jumping out to a 25-10 lead. With the worst record in the NBA locked up and no reason to tank because they don’t own their own first round pick in this year’s draft, they wanted to give the home fans something to cheer about.

Unfortunately, the Bulls narrowed the gap to 32-25 by the end of the first quarter, and 51-45 by halftime. Using a 37-24 advantage in the third, Chicago had taken the lead heading into the fourth.

The Bulls have surged over the last few weeks to rejoin the playoff field and welcomed Dwyane Wade back into the lineup on Saturday. The Nets, meanwhile, had won six of their last 10 games heading into their early evening game.

Lin has only played in 35 games this season, averaging 14.3 points, 5.1 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game on .443/.367/.795 shooting splits heading into Saturday’s game. However, it’s worth noting that the Nets are 12-22 in the first 34 games Lin played, as opposed to 7-38 without him.

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Here’s hoping we see more of the Brook-Lin connection in 2017-18, since the Nets’ situation is already gloomy enough as it is.