The year ended the same way for the Chicago Bulls as it began: holding their breath, waiting for a shot to fall.

DeMar DeRozan rang in 2022 with a bit of magic, sinking a one-legged 3-pointer in Indianapolis to beat the buzzer for a win against the Pacers on New Year’s Eve. But DeRozan couldn’t rustle up the same heroics Saturday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Bulls forced a Cavaliers jump-ball turnover with 5.8 seconds remaining as Alex Caruso and Nikola Vučević smothered a last-second shot attempt by Donovan Mitchell, placing the ball in the team’s most reliable hands to take the potential game-winner. The Cavaliers threw a double-team at DeRozan, who pulled up for his signature midrange jumper to take another crack at a New Year’s Eve haymaker.

But unlike last year’s crisp arc through the net, this year’s shot bounced slightly off the mark, rattling across the rim as the Bulls fell 103-102 at the United Center.

The highs

• Javonte Green carried the Bulls offense in the first half with 12 points, netting the only Bulls 3-pointer of the half and slamming down a thunderous one-handed dunk. Green threw himself into the teeth of the Cavaliers defense, earning the first five free throws of the night for the Bulls. He did not score in the second half.

• After consecutive games with a 40-point performance from DeRozan and Zach LaVine, respectively, the Bulls had a more well-rounded offense against the Cavaliers. Six players scored 11 points or more: DeRozan had 21, LaVine 15 and Ayo Dosunmu 19.

The lows

• The Bulls were completely outmatched in secondary opportunities, coughing up 25 second-chance points while scoring only two. Despite out-rebounding the Cavaliers 25-24 in the first half, the Bulls gave up 15 rebounds in the third quarter as they lost the battle of the boards on both ends of the court. Jarrett Allen led the Cavaliers with four offensive rebounds.
• The Cavaliers lead the league in defensive rating (108.6) but came into Chicago on a three-game losing streak after giving up 125 points or more in their last two losses. After a week of explosive offense, the Bulls managed only 102 points against the Cavaliers and gave up 16 points on 15 turnovers.
• After trailing by as many as 14 points, the Bulls marched back to force their 19th clutch finish — any game with a margin of five or fewer points in the final five minutes. The Bulls were on a strong streak in these situations, finishing 7-4 in clutch games after an 0-7 start to the season. But the final shot didn’t fall this game, dropping the Bulls to 7-12 in the category.
• Fresh off a season-high 43-point performance Friday against the Detroit Pistons, LaVine was quiet through his first 30 minutes. He scored only eight points in the opening half and didn’t net a single basket in the third quarter. LaVine finally broke his scoreless stretch with 6:38 remaining in the game, scoring seven straight points to pull the Bulls within three, but he didn’t deliver in the final five minutes.

Stat of the game

The Cavaliers won the game behind the 3-point arc — a familiar refrain for the Bulls, who take the fewest 3-pointers in the league. The Bulls were outscored 39-21 from behind the arc, while three Cavaliers made three or more 3-pointers.

The Bulls only made one 3-pointer in the first half while the Cavaliers went 9-for-23 from behind the arc. Dosunmu took advantage of a pair of open looks to go 2-for-2 in the third quarter, but the Bulls couldn’t ignite their long-range shooting.

Kevin Love led the Cavaliers with 5-for-11 shooting from behind the arc.

Injury report

Goran Dragić was the only Bulls player ruled out against the Cavaliers, sitting out the team’s third game in four nights for rest. Derrick Jones Jr. was cleared to return after missing five games with a left ankle sprain but did not play.

The Cavaliers were missing guard Darius Garland (right thumb) and forward Evan Mobley (right ankle).

Where they stand

The Bulls fell to 16-20 and remain in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

Up next

The Bulls will travel to Cleveland for a rematch against the Cavaliers on Monday.

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Jacque Vaughn’s New Year’s Resolution has already come true. The streak continues to live on in Brooklyn.

Hours after Vaughn said his only goal entering the New Year was to win the night’s game, the Nets (24-12) extended their league-best winning streak to 11 games with a 123-106 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.

The Nets have now leapfrogged the Milwaukee Bucks for the Eastern Conference’s second seed. The Boston Celtics (26-10) have the best record in all of basketball.

They Nets are also now 2-7 all-time on New Year’s Eve with their first win on the holiday since 2003. They never trailed against the Hornets. It was their fourth wire-to-wire victory of the season.

And with superstar forward Kevin Durant watching from the sidelines for the entire fourth quarter, there’s no better way for the Nets to enter 2023. Durant, who led the NBA in minutes played for a large portion of this season, played 30 of a possible 36 minutes through the first three quarters as the Nets built a lead that ballooned as large at 20 in the third period.

Durant tallied 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field before a rare fourth-quarter stint on the bench. Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 28 points and powered the offense with Durant on the bench. Four other Nets rotation players scored in double figures, including starting center Nic Claxton, who tied a career-high in with six blocks for the second game in a row.

Both Irving and starting forward Royce O’Neale hit four threes against the Hornet defense. Reserve wings TJ Warren and Yuta Watanabe also each scored in double figures.

As a result, the Nets remain the hottest team in all of basketball entering the New Year.

Brooklyn is 22-7 since Vaughn took over for Steve Nash as head coach and the team won 18 of its last 21 games

The Nets have done so with a roster that has gotten healthy but still remains inconsistent.

Sharpshooter Joe Harris missed his fourth straight game with soreness in his left knee. After missing all but 14 games due to a severe left ankle sprain that required two in-season surgeries, Harris — as he told The Daily News he anticipated — has had pain in other areas of his left leg.

Harris has missed games this season due to soreness in his left foot and most recently soreness in his left knee. While he remains one of the NBA’s top three-point shooters and a visibly improved defender, Harris has missed six of the team’s 35 games, but Vaughn said the team will re-visit him for Monday’s matchup at home against the San Antonio Spurs.

“He’ll stay at home, rejoin us [in Brooklyn]. Hopefully, we’ll assess him when we get back,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “But he will not play Charlotte, so no need to fly him. Just thinking it through, keep them there, see what happens in these next three days.”

Nets star Ben Simmons has also been in and out of the rotation after a season-long layoff from basketball followed by an off-season procedure on his lower back.

Simmons, who recently missed time due to a calf strain, had a non-Covid related illness that rendered him questionable ahead of Saturday’s game. He played 19 minutes and tallied just two points, three rebounds and two assists.

“[We left him] back at the hotel. Best to keep in there. He’ll fly with us to Charlotte,” Vaughn said over the practice weekend. “I guess [Charlotte] could be up in the air as one of those non-COVID [illnesses]. I’m not even sure we’ll list him, but all signs point towards him playing.”

This Nets’ season has been defined by winning games regardless of who’s on the floor. They will attempt to continue the streak Monday against the Spurs.

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The Knicks entered 2023 with a positive.

Behind Julius Randle’s continued surge, the Knicks snapped a five-game losing streak and outlasted the rebuilding Rockets on New Year’s Eve, 108-88.

Without injured duo Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett, New York again leaned on Randle, who answered the call with 35 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. In his final six games of 2022, Randle averaged 33.2 points and is suddenly in the All-Star conversation.

His field-goal percentage wasn’t impressive Saturday while missing 11 of his 20 field goals, but he nailed five treys and 12 foul shots.

The Knicks (19-18) are over .500 entering the New Year for the first time since 2013. They finished 1-2 on their Texas road trip, and now play four of their next five at MSG (although that’s not necessarily a good thing since they’re better on the road).

The Rockets, meanwhile, are young and bad, a status they’ve accepted since James Harden forced his way out in 2020. They have the No. 2 and No. 3 overall picks from the last two drafts in the lineup — Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. — and remain fully immersed in the race to the bottom for next year’s prized draft prospect, Victor Wembanyama. The Rockets failed to win more than 20 games the last two seasons and now own the Western Conference’s worst record at 10-26.

On Saturday, Houston scored just 50 points (38 in the first) over the final three quarters and finished with 24 turnovers — 10 more than the Knicks. As a result of Houston’s sloppiness, New York won in a blowout despite shooting just 39 percent.

It was the second straight game without Brunson (hip injury) and Barrett (lacerated finger), which again led to heavy minutes for Quentin Grimes, Miles McBride and Immanuel Quickley.

How did they respond? Quickley picked up the scoring slack with 27 points. Grimes, a Houston product who was coming off a dud in San Antonio, scored 17 points.  McBride struggled offensively but helped guard the perimeter in the final three quarters.

Despite Saturday’s result, it was a painful 2022 and an especially long December. The Knicks emerged as the NBA’s hottest team mid-month with an eight-game winning streak, then they became the NBA’s coldest squad with a five-game losing streak.

Now they have a winning streak to take into the New Year.

They were lazy on defense in the first quarter Saturday — which was the main symptom of Thursday’s defeat in San Antonio — but recovered quickly and took advantage of Houston missing shots. They led at halftime, 53-49, and by double-digits in the third quarter.

The Rockets never recovered.

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Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn isn’t big on New Year’s resolutions.

But in a season headlines by championship expectations, he offered a goal entering the new calendar year: extending Brooklyn’s league-best winning streak to 11 games with a victory against the Charlotte Hornets on New Year’s Eve.

“Maybe I’ll give a resolution after (we secure a victory),” Vaughn said ahead of tipoff Saturday night. “But it’s really keeping thing group in the now, playing today’s game, and let’s just win today’s game.”

The Nets have been the hottest team in all of basketball entering the New Year.

They entered Saturday night third place in the Eastern Conference behind only the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks and are tied for the fifth-best record in all of basketball. Brooklyn is 21-7 since Vaughn took over for Steve Nash as head coach and the team won 17 of its last 20 games entering Saturday’s matchup against the Hornets.

The Nets have done so with a roster that has gotten healthy but still remains inconsistent.

Sharpshooter Joe Harris missed his fourth straight game with soreness in his left knee. After missing all but 14 games due to a severe left ankle sprain that required two in-season surgeries, Harris — as he told The Daily News he anticipated — has had pain in other areas of his left leg.

Harris has missed games this season due to soreness in his left foot and most recently soreness in his left knee. While he remains one of the NBA’s top three-point shooters and a visibly improved defender, Harris has missed six of the team’s 35 games, but Vaughn said the team will re-visit him for Monday’s matchup at home against the San Antonio Spurs.

“He’ll stay at home, rejoin us [in Brooklyn]. Hopefully, we’ll assess him when we get back,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “But he will not play Charlotte, so no need to fly him. Just thinking it through, keep them there, see what happens in these next three days.”

Nets star Ben Simmons has also been in and out of the rotation after a season-long layoff from basketball followed by an off-season procedure on his lower back.

Simmons, who recently missed time due to a calf strain, had a non-Covid related illness that rendered him questionable ahead of Saturday’s game. He not practice and was at limited capacity against the Hornets.

“[We left him] back at the hotel. Best to keep in there. He’ll fly with us to Charlotte,” Vaughn said over the practice weekend. “I guess [Charlotte] could be up in the air as one of those non-COVID [illnesses]. I’m not even sure we’ll list him, but all signs point towards him playing.”

This Nets’ season has been defined by winning games regardless of who’s on the floor, and it sounds like more of the same will need to be on the docket it Vaughn’s New Year’s Resolution is going to materialize.

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SANTA CLARA — Trey Lance surprisingly required follow-up surgery Friday on his right ankle, successfully removing stabilizing hardware that “irritated” a tendon after his initial surgery in September, the 49ers announced Saturday.

Lance, last year’s No. 3 overall draft pick and this season’s opening-game starter, is expected to make a full recovery and return for this spring’s organized team activities.

His season effectively ended Sept. 18 in the 49ers’ home opener, when he sustained a “fibula fracture and ligament disruption” upon colliding with a Seattle Seahawks defender on a run up the middle in that eventual win.

The 49ers (11-4) have gone on to win the NFC West behind Lance’s successors, Jimmy Garoppolo and now Brock Purdy, who’ll make his fourth straight start in Sunday’s game at the Raiders (6-9).

“Due to the location of the fracture, the required hardware placement was close to a tendon in Lance’s ankle,” the team said in Saturday’s statement. “During the rehab process, their close proximity proved to cause irritation in his ankle.

“After consulting with multiple experts, the decision was made to have the hardware removed to prevent future issues in the ankle.”

Lance has remained a constant presence at the 49ers’ facility since his injury, and he walked without a limp while coming out for the 49ers’ pregame warmups at last Saturday’s home win over Washington.

Garoppolo is four weeks removed from his fracture and has been out of a hard cast for two weeks, but he’s been using a knee scooter and orthopedic support boot amid his recovery. He is not on the 49ers’ injured reserve list, with a chance of returning in the playoffs. Josh Johnson currently is the 49ers’ backup to Purdy; Jacob Eason is on the practice squad.

Lance was able to do light jogging within two months of his initial surgery Sept. 19, and he accompanied the 49ers on their trips last month to Colorado Springs, Colo., and Mexico City. During recent games, he’s been on the sideline offering support to Purdy, a rookie who took over once Garoppolo sustained a foot fracture Dec. 4.

Last season, Lance went 1-1 as a rookie starter filling in for Garoppolo, completing 41-of-71 passes for 603 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions; he also had 168 rushing yards (38 carries, one touchdown).

Lance spent this past offseason entrenched as the 49ers’ starting quarterback, while Garoppolo’s future remained in limbo because March shoulder surgery scuttled his trade market. Garoppolo agreed to a pay cut to open the season as Lance’s backup, but that role lasted only five quarters until Lance got hurt against the Seahawks.

In the season-opening, rain-soaked loss at Chicago, Lance completed 13-of-28 passes for 164 yards with an interception, and he ran for 13 times for 54 yards; in the home-opening win over Seattle, he had as many carries (three, for 13 yards) as pass attempts (2-of-3, 30 yards) before getting hurt on his 16th snap.

Lance’s original contract runs through 2024, at a salary-cap charge of $9.3 million and $10.0 million over the next two seasons. Garoppolo is slated to hit free agency in March for the first time of his nine-year career. Purdy, the 262nd and final pick in this year’s draft, is signed through 2025 at a salary cap charge of roughly $1 million annually.