Knicks 113, Bulls 94: “Great vets, great teammates, great coaching”
The New York Knicks secured their 10th win in 11 games on Wednesday night, with their 113-94 victory over the Zach LaVine-less Chicago Bulls.
That’s how you bounce back.
Well, kind of.
After having their nine-game winning streak snapped by the Phoenix Suns on Monday, the New York Knicks rebounded with a win over the Chicago Bulls, 113-94.
It’s their 10th win in their last 11 games, and gives them sole possession of the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, after the Atlanta Hawks’ loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Julius Randle was once again a force of nature. Immanuel Quickley was the fourth-quarter spark plug. And Nerlens Noel played some damn good defense.
And it started out that way, too.
New York jumped out to a 14-6 lead in the first quarter.
The highlight there? This off-the-dribble three from RJ Barrett. Something we haven’t seen much this season.
Randle was also cooking, taking advantage of his mismatch on Daniel Theis early.
He drew a foul on the 3-point line, and his free throws pushed the Knicks’ lead to 19-8.
Then Barrett followed him up with another crafty move, scoring on this up-and-in maneuver to give the Knicks a 21-8 lead with just five minutes to go in the first.
That’s when Nerlens Noel got started on the defensive end.
Related: the Chicago Bulls started this one 0-8 from three.
But not Randle, who made his first 3-pointer in the first period, giving the Knicks a 26-10 lead, and himself 12 points in the quarter.
A few buckets from Nikola Vucevic and Thaddeus Young tightened things up going into the second quarter, but it still wasn’t relatively close.
New York took a 32-19 lead after the first 12 minutes. They shot 60% from the field and made three of their four attempts from the 3-point line.
It was nice while it lasted.
The momentum switched sides at the start of the second quarter. Garrett Temple broke the Bulls’ 3-point draught, and they opened the period with a 13-2 run.
Who else to break up Chicago’s run than Immanuel Quickley? The rookie guard hit a floater to put New York up 36-32.
Then five straight points from Randle, his first of the quarter, stretched the Knicks lead back out to 11.
I can only think of a handful of guys that make this kind of shot on a regular basis. Impressive stuff from our All-Star.
With the news of Alec Burks’ return to the team, Reggie Bullock only felt it fitting to completely blow a near-wide-open layup in the final minutes of the second quarter.
Fortunately, he followed it up with a 3-pointer. Barrett scored a tough bucket subsequently, and New York took a 52-48 lead over the Bulls at halftime.
New York won the turnover battle, by a wide margin — they had committed just two turnovers to Chicago’s six at the break.
As had been the story in this one, the pendulum of momentum swung back the other way, with the Knicks opening up the third quarter aggressively.
RJ got his usual second half opening two, and this tough slam off the outlet from Elfrid Payton.
But in between, and notably, Bullock hit a pull-up jumper to give himself 10 points. That marks the ninth straight game where he’s scored in double digits. I can’t say enough good things.
Chicago started biting back with all of Theis, Vucevic, and Coby White contributing scores, and with eight minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Bulls took their first lead of the game.
So who do you turn to when you’re in desperate need of a bucket? Your All-NBA forward.
And as is custom, RJ wasn’t far behind him with a three of his own.
Then it was Derrick Rose who scored.
Only, that was his first made basket of the night...
...at the 1:42 mark of the third quarter. Not a top showing for Rose against his former team — he’d finish 2-11 from the field.
Lauri Markkanen made an and-1, giving Chicago a 75-74 lead, Randle followed it up with a fall away jumper on the baseline, and Tomas Satoransky missed a three to close the third quarter.
So the Knicks walked into the fourth quarter with a lead at home, a circumstance in which they are undefeated this entire season. Yeah, you read that right — the Knicks are now 19-0 when they hold a lead going into the final period at Madison Square Garden.
Shoutout to Marcus Morris. It’s a little delayed, but that dog mentality is alive and well at MSG.
The fourth quarter opened up, and with it, so did the rim. Well, at least for Immanuel Quickley, who opened up the period with seven straight points.
The kid is special. You know who the last five guys picked with the 25th pick overall were?
Anžejs Pasečņiks, Nassir Little, Moritz Wagner, Brice Johnson, and Jarell Martin.
Just let that sink in. Quickley’s projected to be better than all five of them combined.
(Clint Capela was picked 25th the year before that, and teammate Reggie Bullock in the draft before that. But recency bias serves me well, so we’ll use it.)
Speaking of rookies, Obi Toppin has refused to walk out of a game without a mind-blowing highlight in recent weeks. Wednesday night was no exception.
As nice as that was, Quickley couldn’t let Toppin steal his thunder.
The 21-year-old rookie would finish the quarter with 11 points, 13 on the night. Fouls ultimately took him off the floor, but one hell of a performance for IQ.
The rest of the fourth quarter was largely a blur.
RJ Barrett scored some, Reggie Bullock hit some threes, Nerlens Noel got a monster fifth block, and Julius Randle got his seventh 30-point performance in his last nine games.
That’s how you bounce back.
Notes
The New York Knicks are 35-28. That’s seven games above .500 and good for the 10th-best record in the entire NBA. We’re going to the playoffs, baby.
As our own Ariel Pacheco noted after the game, the New York Knicks are 25-14 since the trade for Derrick Rose, including the games he missed due to COVID-19. And as I noted after the fact, in games he and Taj Gibson are available, the team is 18-7. Thibs gonna Thibs. But when it’s working, who’s complaining?
Nerlens Noel had a damn good game. And he almost made a 3-pointer!
The big man finished with eight points, eight rebounds, five blocks, four steals, and three assists in 29 minutes. Noel’s the sixth player since 2010 to have such a game.
The box score isn’t going to indicate it, but this wasn’t my favorite game from RJ Barrett. He had some nice moments, but it was a real roller coaster performance. He finished with 22 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and two steals.
Julius Randle finished the night with 34 points, seven rebounds, and three assists, in just 36 minutes on the floor. It’s his least amount of minutes recorded since the Knicks’ loss to the Boston Celtics on April 7, prior to the win streak.
That’s only due to Obi Toppin, who’s surging as of late. He’s not doing anything that’s going to jump off of the stat sheet, but he’s been marginally improved on defense, and is moving more fluidly within the offense. Check out this monster of a second effort from Toppin, his second and final bucket on the night.
It was nice to see Rose move the ball more on a night where his shot wasn’t falling. He shot just 2-11 against Chicago but had six assists.
How about another shootout for Reggie Bullock? He finished with 13 points, four rebounds, and two assists, and shot 3-5 from three. Bullock’s made 39 of 83 shots from deep (47%!) over their last 11 games, in which New York has won 10.
The Knicks controlled the ball well, committing just four turnovers in this one, two in each half. That’s a strong display from a team averaging 13.2 nightly, and is one of the reasons they were able to hold off Chicago’s comeback attempt and win.
It’s a nice win for the New York Knicks, who will be off until Sunday when they take on the Houston Rockets in the first of a six-game road trip.
I was worried how long it would be before the team got back on the horse, falling far and hard off of their nine-game winning streak.
Immanuel Quickley said it best after the game. When asked about his “resolve” to impact winning entering the fourth quarter, he gave credit where credit was due:
“As a rookie I’m blessed to be in a situation where I’ve got great vets, great teammates, and great coaching around me.”
It may have been a healthy slice of humble pie, but you love to hear it, nonetheless.
