This Bulls season has been a wacky one, filled with breathless updates of an inactive Derrick Rose that haven’t really updated the situation; game-winning shots and groan-inducing turnovers; and the unique non-stop energy that is Nate Robinson.

Given all that, it seems only fitting that it now will feature a make-or-break Game 7 in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

The Nets forced that scenario with a 95-92 victory Thursday night at the United Center. They took advantage of a depleted Bulls roster that had Rose and Kirk Hinrich in street clothes, Robinson vomiting on the bench, Taj Gibson also playing through illness until he fouled out and Luol Deng at home with a severe viral infection.

United Center ballboys should file for battle pay.

The Nets had five players in double figures, with Brook Lopez, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson sharing team honors with 17 points apiece and Gerald Wallace chipping in with 15. Williams had 1 assists.

All five Bulls starters finished in double figures. Marco Belinelli led the way with 22 and seven assists while Joakim Noah had 14 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks.

This marked the first time in Nets’ franchise history they won an elimination game to force a Game 7.

In 12 previous instances, the Bulls never have lost a playoff series in which they led 3-1. The only time they have lost a series when leading 3-2 came when the Warriors, en route to the 1975 NBA title, prevailed in the Western Conference finals.

“You have to be mentally tough when you face adversity,” coach Tom Thibodeau said beforehand. “We talk about that all the time. We have to respond to the challenge. We’re more than capable. And we have to put the sweat into it.”

The loss of Deng and Hinrich made it an offensive game for the first half with the Nets reaching 60 points by the break. That’s a pace and a style at which the Nets are superior to the Bulls.

But the pace slowed considerably in the third quarter despite the Bulls losing Carlos Boozer to foul trouble on top of everything else. Belinelli, big all night jazzed the sellout crowd by sinking a 3-pointer and screaming in celebration at the Nets’ bench.

Every time the Nets appeared to pull away, the Bulls responded. C.J. Watson’s 3-pointer just more than midway through the fourth gave them an eight-point lead but Robinson memorably crossed over Kris Humphries

Both teams came out on fire, trading baskets in a first quarter in which the Bulls shot 59 percent and the Nets connected at 65 percent. Belinelli established himself with eight first-quarter points, playing the entire period.

In the second, the roster attrition forced one stretch where Richard Hamilton, Marquis Teague, Nazr Mohammed, Jimmy Butler and Gibson took the floor together. Robinson fouled Williams for a four-point play and eight-point lead with 1:27 left in the half.

“I don’t think you ever get used to it,” Butler said of playing without so many players. “But when you have guys down, you’re still going to go win games. Even if we’re short-handed, we’re expected to win.”

If the Bulls want their season to continue, they have to win Game 7, no matter who they have available.

“That’s the challenge of the NBA,” Thibodeau said. “We have got a great group of guys. They have been hit hard all year. They’re responded to every challenge.”

The biggest one yet is coming on Saturday.

Kirk Hinrich hopes his injured calf won’t keep him out of Game 6 tomorrow.

Given that the Bulls have waited two years for a rematch with the Heat, two days for another chance doesn’t seem like that long.

The Nets forced Thursday’s Game 6 at the United Center with Monday night’s 110-91 triumph at Barclays Center, closing with the confidence and big plays they lacked in their epic Game 4 collapse they lost in triple overtime.

Deron Williams took over the third quarter, Andray Blatche and Gerald Wallace came up big in the fourth and Brook Lopez proved a force throughout as the Nets this time held onto a double-digit lead.

There were nervous moments. The Bulls pulled within 85-84 with 8 minutes, 15 seconds left on Marco Belinelli’s 3-pointer. But Blatche scored four points, including two free throws after Belinelli committed a flagrant foul, and Joe Johnson added two jumpers for breathing room.

Lopez, steady all game with 28 points and 10 rebounds, then snuck behind Joakim Noah for a dunk and three-point play with 4:01 left for a 98-90 advantage.

The Bulls, who could be without Kirk Hinrich the rest of the series, still are seeking their first four-game win streak this season.

“We know how good they are,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “All these games have been tough, hard-fought games. They usually come down to one or two possessions near the end, and you’ve got to make plays.”

The Nets made more of them. After Jimmy Butler — strong, with 18 points — split two free throws to make it 98-91, the wheels fell off.

Luol Deng, who is 1-for-18 from 3-point range in the series, missed from beyond the arc. Wallace swished a 3-pointer from directly in front of the Bulls’ bench with 2:19 remaining.

Then Nate Robinson, who led the Bulls with 28 points in his first career playoff start for Hinrich, committed a lazy turnover that Wallace converted into a breakaway dunk.

Robinson had played a solid floor game overall, finishing with eight assists and three turnovers. But Williams, not surprisingly, got wherever he wanted offensively in the third quarter especially.

The Nets grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and shot 50 percent.

PHOTO: Taj Gibson battles for the ball with the Nets’ Brook Lopez during a 110-91 loss in Game 5. — Scott Strazzante, Chicago Tribune, April 29, 2013

Tom Thibodeau, Bulls Head Coach, talks about the Bulls toughness after their big win in Game 4

The Bulls and Nets staged an exhausting game Saturday. And that was just for the United Center fans who witnessed this instant classic.

In the end, the Bulls gutted it out in triple overtime. They emerged with a 142-134 comeback victory to earn a 3-1 edge in the best-of-seven series.

Game 5 will be at 6 p.m. Monday in Brooklyn.

“Huge win; huge win,” Joakim Noah said.

With players fouling out left and right in the third overtime, the Bulls got a key bucket from Nazr Mohammed. He connected in the lane after taking a feed from Kirk Hinrich with 32.6 seconds to play.

Mohammed came up huge again with 19 seconds to play, putting back a Carlos Boozer missed free throw for a 140-134 lead.

Mohammed was in for Noah, who fouled out after playing 39 minutes. Nate Robinson and Taj Gibson also fouled out for the Bulls.

The Bulls stormed back from a 109-95 deficit with 3:45 to play in regulation. It was all thanks to Robinson, who scored 12 consecutive points with an array of jumpers, free throws and an acrobatic layup.

Then Robinson (34 points) hit an unfathomable running bank shot with 2.1 seconds to play just in front of the 3-point line in overtime. But the Nets’ Joe Johnson sent it to double overtime with a floater just before the buzzer.

Brook Lopez rejected Noah near the rim to send it to triple OT – just the seventh such game (three overtimes or more) in NBA playoff history. The Bulls have now been involved in three, including 1993 vs. Phoenix and 2009 vs. Boston.

The Nets led 109-95 after a Gerald Wallace slam, and C.J. Watson could have made it a 16-point game. But the former Bulls guard got greedy, missing a wide-open, two-handed dunk.

Appropriate for Day 3 of the NFL draft, the game featured some big hits. Wallace went down hard on a Noah screen, and then Wallace exacted revenge – at the same spot on the court – with a pick on Robinson, who hit the deck.

In the second quarter, Robinson and Watson got technicals after getting tangled up at the scorer’s table. Robinson, who has not been shy about his dislike for Watson, drove him into the padded area after fouling him.

By Teddy Greenstein, Tribune reporter

5:16 p.m. CDT, April 27, 2013

Decades from now, when Tom Thibodeau’s coaching legacy has been fully written, a Chicago fan may stumble across the box score from the Bulls’ 79-76 victory over the Nets and smile knowingly, a nod to Thibodeau’s reputation as a defensive tactician.

A young fan in Brooklyn might peruse the same sheet and, much more simply, scream, “Man, the Nets stink!”

The truth, at least on Thursday night at the United Center, existed in both schools of thought.

The present reality — for fans of both teams everywhere — is the Bulls grabbed a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series after a shockingly inept offensive first-half stretch from the Nets that negated their late rally.

Carlos Boozer’s 22 points and 16 rebounds and Luol Deng’s 21 points and 10 rebounds powered the Bulls, who are now 16-6 in Game 3s with the series tied at 1-1 and have gone on to win 13 of those 21 series. Game 3 is Saturday at the United Center.

“Any time you win you don’t want to feel too good about yourself,” Thibodeau said. “You want to analyze what occurred, see the things you did well, and also see the things you didn’t do as well so you can make the necessary corrections.”

Shooting practice might be a good place for the Nets to start.

After a strong start, the Nets at one point somehow missed 25 of 26 shots and scored four points in 13 minutes, 45 seconds. That’s on pace for a 16-point game.

The Nets flirted with the Bulls’ playoff franchise record for lowest opponent field-goal percentage that the Jazz set at 30 percent during the 1998 NBA Finals before settling for 34.6 percent.

Still, the Nets whittled a 16-point, fourth-quarter deficit to 77-72 and had Deron Williams with a wide-open 3-point attempt in the final minute that he missed.

Joakim Noah played 27 minutes through his plantar fasciitis again, splitting two free throws with 4.4 seconds to provide the final margin when C.J. Watson’s 3-pointer missed at the buzzer. He had eight rebounds and two blocks.

At one point in the third, Noah missed on a power move and came up gingerly, swearing as he limped away.

Brook Lopez’s 22 points led the Nets. A much more aggressive Williams matched his Game 2 scoring of eight points by midway through the first quarter but cooled off to finish with 18 points and just four assists.

Deng and Boozer completely took over the third quarter, scoring 20 of the Bulls’ 24 points. Deng scored the Bulls’ first 12 points of the period in just 3:55.

The Bulls continued their troubling habit of starting slowly, particularly at home. They committed five turnovers and trailed 13-2 run as Thibodeau burned two timeouts, one surely mentioning Deng’s no-no of fouling Williams on a 3-pointer.

The Nets extended their lead to 17-5 when the wheels fell off. The Bulls closed the first quarter with a 14-0 run as the Nets missed 14 straight field goals and failed to score after Williams’ free throws at the 6 minute, 25 second mark.

Those runs grew to 16-0 and 15 straight Nets’ misses before Andray Blatche dropped home a layup at the 10:49 mark. But Blatche immediately offset his play by purposely bumping into Nazr Mohammed after Mohammed delivered a hard foul, drawing a technical.

Taj Gibson jazzed the sellout crowd with a vicious one-handed jam over Kris Humphries at the 8:15 mark. And the Nets’ offense continued to misfire. After sinking five of their first eight shots, they closed the first half by missing 18 of 22 and entered the break shooting 22.5 percent and trailing 41-34.

Whether that was defensive prowess by Thibodeau and the Bulls or Nets’ offensive ineptitude doesn’t matter. It happened.