Chicago Bulls vs. New York Knicks: Instant Analysis of Chicago’s Third Straight Loss
The Chicago Bulls were looking to bounce back against the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden after losing their previous two games. However, the Knicks finally got their act together after going 1-9 in their past 10 games, and picked up a 104-89 win over the Bulls.
Next: Jimmy Butler is ridiculously clutch
The season outlooks for both the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls both looked relatively high heading into the season.
For Chicago, it was the story of how the “Three Alphas” would lead the Bulls, at the very least, to a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
For New York, people raved on the “Big Four” formed between Joakim Noah, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick Rose and Carmelo Anthony, and expected the Knicks to be a real threat in the East.
Neither of those storylines have worked out for either team.
Despite the excellence of Jimmy Butler, the Bulls remain the ninth seed in the East. For the Knicks, situations like the Derrick Rose fiasco of just “not showing up” describe their season pretty well, and they currently sit in 11th place in the East.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, both Jimmy Butler and Nikola Mirotic were unable to play. That being said, Paul Zipser got to start for the first time in his career.
Here’s your quarter-by-quarter analysis of everything that went down!
First Quarter
The Bulls started off the first quarter with another flat start (why does this always seem to happen?). The ball movement was sluggish and players weren’t hitting shots, even if open. Meanwhile, the Knicks initially shot 5-of-5 from the field and jumped out to an early lead.
We got to see Zipser score his second shot ever for Chicago early on (he was 1-for-16 shooting heading into tonight’s game) as he finished a layup strongly on a fast break.
For New York, Rose looked very active from the start and he had a solid first quarter, including a double-clutch layup on a beautiful cut. Simply put, his athleticism was present, and it looked as if he had a little extra bounce in his step as he continuously scored on his former team (he led all scorers at the end of the half with 15).
The Bulls finished the quarter on a 10-2 run, making the final score at the end of the quarter, 24-22, with the Knicks ahead by a bucket.
Second Quarter
The Knicks started off strong once again at the start of the second, going on a 10-0 run quickly and extending their lead to 12.
Have you ever heard the expression, “Basketball is a game of runs?” Well, this game definitely followed that notion, as Chicago answered with an 8-0 run of their own.
Midway through the second, Zipser drilled his first three-pointer for Chicago. It was heavily contested too, which is a great sight to see for him after his initial struggles.
Sadly for Chicago, Carmelo Anthony didn’t take too kindly to Zipser hitting a shot on him (they guarded each other throughout the game), and so Melo took it upon himself to respond accordingly. By that, I mean that he proceeded to hit a contested stepback jumper, then got an “and-one” midrange pull-up (Zipser fouled him), and then hit a three-pointer. Sheesh!
The half ended with more strong play from Rose, who hit two more double-clutch layups, one of them which also had a foul call on Rajon Rondo. Rondo made up for it though, when he hit a moving mid-range jumper as the buzzer sounded to cut the lead down to three.
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/819730030653804544
The Knicks led at the half, 54-51.
Third Quarter
How many times will I need to chastise the Bulls for having poor starts to quarters before they fix the problem?
Apparently, the answer is a lot.
The Bulls started off slow again in the quarter, shooting an abysmal 2-for-13 from the field as a team.
Meanwhile, for the Knicks, Melo continued to hit his trademarked isolation step-back jumpers, helping New York jump out to a double-digit lead.
The only bright spot for the Bulls (and I really mean the only one) was Dwyane Wade, who after struggling in the first half, going only 2-of-8 from the field, came out strong and went dropped three buckets.
The rest of the team shot a terrible 2-for-12. And that’s during the entire third quarter, folks.
Where’s Jimmy when you need him?
The Knicks led 76-65 at the end of the third.
Fourth Quarter
Anyone who watched the Bulls game on Tuesday can most likely agree that the Bulls blew their lead and strong chance at defeating the Wizards. Chicago led by as much as 18 in that game, yet the Wizards clawed back, highlighted by a John Wall game winner with five seconds left.
With Wade back in the lineup for Chicago tonight, things would be different, right?
Well even though Wade finished the game strong (including that nasty tomahawk slam above) the rest of Chicago was invisible. If you were like me and hoped that Wade’s dunk would give the Bulls some momentum, you most likely were also disappointed.
Thanks to Doug McDermott, any and all momentum disappeared immediately after a poor foul allowed Mindaugas Kuzminskas to score a three-point play.
With 8:46 to go, Wade had 14 points in the second half, but the rest of the team was responsible for… drum roll, please… eight. That’s eight points for a whole team in 13 minutes of playing time. Yikes!
The final six minutes were uneventful. The Knicks, who led by 13 with 5:44 remaining in the game, never let the lead drop below nine points.
The Bulls have now lost three games straight; hopefully things can change when Jimmy Buckets returns (probably) on Saturday as the Bulls take on the New Orleans Pelicans.