The Chicago Bulls were playing their third game in four nights against a New York Knicks team that had lost their point guard earlier in the week and nine of their last 10 games. So, in confusing Bulls fashion, they got worked.
Let’s just state the obvious with the Chicago Bulls: they’re a bad basketball team when Jimmy Butler isn’t playing because of a flu bug that’s going around.
That statement was on full display Thursday night, as the Bulls were trounced by Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and the New York Knicks, 104-89. Rose took control in the first half of play, while Noah racked up a double-double in a strong performance during the second half.
Also, some guy with a name no one can pronunciate right on the first try — Mindaugas Kuzminskas — carved the Bulls up for 19 points off the New York bench, too. (In all seriousness, he’s a young player with some nice potential for the Knickerbockers and it showed on Thursday.)
Now that we’ve established that the Bulls aren’t good, here’s five takeaways from their third loss this week, starting with the previous era’s core guys.