The Knicks returned from the All-Star break on Thursday night with a 113-111 win over the Chicago Bulls to begin the second half of the season on a high note.
Here are the takeaways…
-After more than a week off (for most), New York was still without OG Anunoby as he missed his sixth straight game while dealing with a right foot sprain. Joining Anunoby on the bench was Josh Hart (patellofemoral syndrome) who was questionable to play in the team’s first half finale on Feb. 12 but ultimately suited up. So, without two of his starters, head coach Tom Thibodeau went with a rotation of Jalen Brunson, Miles McBride, Precious Achiuwa, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.
-Shorthanded and perhaps still feeling the effects of the long break, the Knicks’ offense couldn’t get much of anything going in the opening quarter and was limited to 19 points — just the sixth time they were held to under 20 points in the first quarter this season.
-Looking eager to do their best All-Star Game impression, both teams tried their luck from distance in the early going and combined for 30 three-point attempts in the first quarter. However, neither team had the winning ticket as New York went 4-for-12 from deep while Chicago went an even worse 5-for-18 from downtown.
-Without two of their more active players on the glass, especially Hart, the Knicks were outrebounded by the Bulls 22-16 in the opening 12 minutes, although the chances were there with so many missed shots. In the end, Chicago entered the second quarter with a 21-19 lead after a very first-game-back-from-break type of start.
-New York’s offense began to find its groove in the second quarter, highlighted by Brunson’s 13. His supporting cast helped as well and even Ariel Hukporti scored (assisted by Brunson). Hukporti saw 17 minutes and had two points, five rebounds and a vicious block in the fourth quarter. Overall, the Knicks’ bench scored just 12 points (compared to 33 points by the Bulls’ bench) with the starters doing the bulk of the heavy lifting, as usual.
New York went into halftime with a 50-43 lead.
-Speaking of heavy lifting, after a quiet first half, Towns came alive in the third quarter and put up 20 points, including the team’s last 10 points of the quarter and 16 of its last 18. Towns had more than half of the Knicks total points in the quarter (33), but Chicago actually cut its deficit to two points during this time by scoring 38 points thanks to a balanced attack offensively and a late spurt of made threes (7-for-10 from deep in the quarter).
-In fact, after starting the game so poorly from three, the Bulls ended regulation shooting 18-for-46 (39 percent) from long range. However, the same can’t be said for New York who went into overtime 13-for-43 (30 percent) from downtown.
-That’s right, the game went into OT after a defensive battle in the fourth quarter was capped by a Bridges block on Nikola Vucevic‘s potential game-winning shot a foot away from the basket with two seconds left. Bridges also scored nine points in the quarter.
-Before that, the game went back and forth as Chicago’s Josh Giddey wouldn’t miss from three. He finished with a season-high 27 points and 16 rebounds. Vucevic’s three-pointer with 50 seconds remaining put the Bulls up by two before Brunson tied it on his patented step-back jumper near the elbow.
-The Knicks were down early in overtime, but McBride quickly got them the lead with a triple before Towns went to work to keep the lead.
Game MVP: Karl-Anthony Towns
-A lot of choices in a wild game, but we’ll go with the player who filled up the stat sheet the most as KAT finished with 32 points and 18 rebounds. Honorable mention goes to Bridges for that massive block that was timed perfectly against a big mismatch.
Highlights
What’s next
The Knicks get right back to it on Friday night with a road matchup against the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m.
