Long Island Nets defeat Windy City Bulls, 111-85, before 7,325 young fans at Coliseum

The Nets blew out the Windy City Bulls in a late morning game that saw a number of positives for Long Island and Killian Hayes admitted he’s had “talks” about a return to the NBA.

It was the annual “Education Day” game at Nassau Coliseum Tuesday and a record-setting 7,325 fans, plus a special guest, were on hand to watch the Long Island Nets school the Windy City Bulls, 111-85.

The G League Nets were returning to the Nassau Coliseum from their latest trek to Montreal as “Les Nets” and nursing the wounds of a six-game losing streak. They welcomed the Bulls affiliate to their an annual “Education Day,” a sea of youngsters from local school fans as well as Jordi Fernandez and members of the Brooklyn coaching staff.

In his remarks to ESPN+, Fernandez said he was on hand to support the Long Island, but with a roster opening on the big club, no doubt he and his staff did a bit of scouting as well…

Fernandez mentioned only one Long Island player, Dariq Whitehead, by name. complimenting him on his early aggressiveness which he said he hoped he’d continue for 48 minutes. But of course, there have been rumors of Brooklyn interest in Killian Hayes, the 6’5”, 23-year-old point guard who played three and a half years for the Pistons and is playing the best ball of his G League turn.

In fact, in Hayes’ post-game interview with NetsDaily, he was asked if there have been “talks” between him and the Nets or other NBA teams. Without getting into details, Hayes acknowledged, “There’s been talks for sure, but I guess we’ll see in the future what happens.” Moreover, two of his teammates took the occasion to praise Hayes.

Brooklyn currently has one opening, created by the buy out of Ben Simmons. Most pundits believe the Nets will use that opening to give Tyrese Martin, himself a two-way, a standard deal. But with two other players, DeAnthony Melton and Bojan Bogdanovic, unavailable for the entire season, there’s a possibility of other moves.

The game marked the largest attendance for any Long Island Nets home game in their eight-year tenure at Nassau Coliseum. The only two bigger crowds in team history came two weeks ago in the first two “home” games of the team’s “Les Nets” promotion in suburban Montreal. Those two games drew 7,750 and 7,518. Tuesday was the fifth time since January 25 that that the G League Nets have played in front of 5,000 fans or more. Last week in Quebec they had crowds of 5,563 and 6,096. Not bad considering back on January 7, they could only draw 625!

The biggest pieces in the Long Island win today’s game were Drew Timme and Dariq Whitehead, both of whom racked up better than 20 points and both of whom gave Hayes big shoutouts, in their post-game comments.

For Timme, the game was also a bit of personal history.

The 6’10” 24-year-old finished the game with a triple-double leading the team in just about every category, points with 23, rebounds with 15, and assists with 10. He even picked up a block.

The Gonzaga product gets a double-double — and flirts with a triple-double — just about every time he steps on the court but Tuesday was the first time he was able to achieve that elusive feat. He was very happy talking about it in the post-game interview…

“It was great,” says Timme. “I’ve been chasing her for a minute. She’s been super elusive and that was the first one I ever got, so I’m pretty excited, I ain’t going to lie.”

One thing that continued to be on full display today was the connection between Timme and Hayes. The two have been like peas in a pod on the court as they regularly find each other for buckets .

“He makes the game so easy,” Timme told NetsDaily about working with Hayes. “He makes it simple. He just makes the right read. Whatever he does, I just know it’s the right play, so it’s awesome to get to play with the guy at such a high level.”

He added of Hayes, “I think we’re all surprised he’s still down here, to be honest, with the way he carries himself and has been playing.”

For Whitehead, the game was a bit of a relief after an illness and some tough outings. He too had kind words for his teammate.

Whitehead hasn’t played his best basketball lately, which only heightens how good Monday must’ve felt for him. The 6’6’ 20-year-old finished the game second in scoring with 20 points while also grabbing six rebounds to his name. It was all good spirits and big smiles after the game for him as well…

“It was good,” Whitehead told ND about getting back on track. “I know it was a game that was needed. The only thing that was going through my mind was making sure our guys win going into the break.”

“Especially for a lot of us guys looking to be at the next level, specifically guys like Killian and I, this was a big opportunity for us to be able to show what we could do with him being there in person,” he said when asked playing in front of Fernandez.

When asked about what’s next for him for the remainder of the year, Whitehead kept it short and sweet: “Continue to stack days.” “I missed two years, and a couple of months with me playing in the G is not going to get me back to where I need to be. I just need to continue to stack days and eventually, I’ll get back on track on continuing to stack time under my belt.”

In fact, almost immediately after the game, Brooklyn announced he’d be returning to Barclays Center in time for Wednesday’s game vs the Philadelphia 76ers.

Hayes, usually one of the team’s top scorers decided to take a back seat Tuesday, finishing with only 11 points. He had averaged nearly 25 points and 10 assists a game in the previous five games on shooting splits of 58/52/88. Hayes connected on five of his 10 shots Tuesday, including making one of his three attempts from deep. He’s continued to show out as a playmaker, picking up eight assists. He spoke to ND about his improved shot-making…

One of the issues he had at the NBA level his first time with the Pistons around was his shot. In four years, he had shooting splits of 38/28/78. However, watching him play now, you wouldn’t know that. NetsDaily had the chance to speak with Killian after Tuesday’s game about how he’s continued to improve his shot.

“Putting in the work,” Hayes said about how his shot has been developing. “Just being confident at the end of the day. I like how my shot is feeling. I like my chances when I shoot the ball. That’s one of the reasons I started going in, just to have that intent whenever I shoot.”

Still, he knows that he’s going to be judged on his point guard skills.

“I’m trying to get as many assists as I can every game,” says Hayes. “That’s how I’m going. Just sharing the ball and keeping everyone happy. You can see that too (on the score sheet) six, or seven guys got over 10 points. That’s a good thing for us.”

His goal, like Whitehead’s, is simple: getting back to the L, noting, “there’ve been talks.”

“That’s my only goal is to get back to the NBA. There’s been talks for sure, but I guess we’ll see in the future what happens.”

Hayes also gave credit to the youngsters on hand.

“It was great to see the kids,” he told NetsDaily. “Maybe it was because of them we won by 30!”

Two other Nets had big games as well, starting with Hayes’ backcourt mate, Tyson Etienne, the 6’2” 25-year-old shooting guard, had 16 points and continued his torrid pace from beyond the arc, hitting 4-of-5 threes. Etienne is shooting 50.0% overall and 49.5% from deep. He was the source of some NBA speculation over the weekend…

Etienne is on a standard G League deal with Long Island. Teams have until March 4 to sign two-way deals.

Kendall Brown, Long Island’s 6’7” 21-year-old wing, had a quietly good game, finishing with a double-double, 15 points and 10 rebounds. Brown also had three assists, two steals, and three blocks.

For Long Island, the game offered a number of positives beyond the crowd and the ability to audition for Fernandez. They were healthy for the first time in a while, a number of players having come down a bad case of the flu during their time in Canada.

Long Island set the tone for the game starting in the first quarter. Behind Dariq Whitehead’s 12 points, Long Island shot 56.5%, including 71.4% from beyond the arc. The Nets continued to dominate in the second, blowing out the Bulls, 27-8. Long Island entered the half, up by 31.

The Bulls fought back in the third quarter, as they outscored Long Island 28-25. However, thanks to the big lead, Long Island maintained a sizable advantage entering the fourth, winning by 26.

Bulls guard Eric Gaines posted 17 points, two rebounds, three assists, one steal and two blocks in 28 minutes. Windy City forward Emanuel Miller tallied 16 points, six rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block in 35 minutes. Two former Long Island Nets — Jordan Hall and David Muoka also scored in double figures: Muoka with 13 points and eight rebounds and Hall with 11 and 6.

Up Next

Long Island plays the Maine Celtics Thursday in Portland at 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+. Then, they like the rest of the NBA and G League will be off on All-Star Break, returning to Nassau a week from Friday vs. the Osceola Magic.

• Boxscore: Long Island Nets 111, Windy City Bulls 85 – G League