The Chicago Bulls defeated the Brooklyn Nets 111-107 at the Barclays Center on Saturday, achieving a 2-0 head-to-head record.

The Bulls lacked Patrick Williams, Coby White and Javonte Green in this game and lost Alex Caruso, who made two of the four 3-pointers the team drained in the first quarter, to hamstring injury in Q1.

Ayo Dosunmu became the biggest surprise for the Bulls by going 5-6 in field goals (FGs) to get 11 points while delivering two blocks. Derrick Jones Jr. joined him with excellent defensive work of four blocks and made two shots from downtown. Lonzo Ball's hands remained cold most of the time, but his performance of filling the stats sheet by getting eight points, nine rebounds, seven assists, two steals and three blocks glued the whole team together, not to mention that he made the game-sealing 3-pointer at 0:17 in Q4.

The above solid contributions by the role players were why the Bulls could hold out on the floor until Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan came to save the day.

LaVine missed seven of his nine attempts behind the arc but he made up for it with 5-7 shooting performance in the middle range and aggressiveness that led to 13 free throws. Most of his highlights happened in Q3 to make sure it's s till a close game in the last quarter.

Q4 belonged to DeRozan who started a head-to-head scoring contest with Kevin Durant. Both were stoppable in the middle range but in the end, DeRozan, who had saved more stamina previously, was the more productive one to get 13 points in this quarter and carry the Bulls over the Nets.

"If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best," DeRozan said. "We're just going to keep coming. We're learning not to get down on ourselves if we're missing shots. We're learning a very critical part of the game is to stay level-headed and to stay balanced. There's a lot of time in the game for things to turn over. Stay the course. That's what we do."

Durant put down 28 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocks for the Nets on Saturday. He did everything he could for the team after playing 162 minutes in four games. So did LaMarcus Aldridge who contributed 20 points and seven rebounds by shooting at 10-17 in FGs.

However, their hard work could not neutralize the negative impact of the under performance by James Harden who had a double-double of 14 points and 14 assists but missed 16 of his FG attempts, including going at 2-13 around the paint.

"Blame this one on me," Harden said after the game. "I had a lot of opportunities at the rim that I didn't convert that could have settled this game down. I just missed layups man. I just, I felt good, though, pace and trying to get to the rim and attacking. Attack, attack, attack and, it just didn't go in."

Having played 23 games with a 16-7 record so far, the Nets are still leading the Eastern Conference but when they have lost six of the eight games facing senior contenders like the Phoenix Suns, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Bulls. That's a very bad sign for the Nets who will face tougher challenges in the playoffs. So is the no-show of offensive dominance of Harden.

Other games on Saturday (away teams come first):

Denver Nuggets 113-99 New York Knicks

Miami Heat 102-124 Milwaukee Bucks

Memphis Grizzlies 97-90 Dallas Mavericks

San Antonio Spurs 112-107 Golden State Warriors

Los Angeles Clippers 99-104 Sacramento Kings