The offense sputtered. The free throws clanked. The veterans sat.
And still, somehow, the Bulls found themselves trailing by only three points with 18.1 seconds left in Saturday’s Madison Square Garden matinee against the New York Knicks.
But when Allan Houston, who led the Knicks with 24 points, buried two free throws two seconds later, the familiar outcome got sealed before a sellout crowd of 19,763.
The 78-71 loss was the Bulls’ ninth straight and tied their season low for points.
The Bulls wasted a 23-point, nine-rebound effort from Brad Miller. They wasted another strong defensive outing on Knicks swingman Latrell Sprewell, whom they held to five points, 12 under his team-leading average.
They wasted a 21-6 run that featured a solid effort from Eddy Curry–five points in six minutes–and erased a 17-point first-half deficit.
And the Bulls, who led briefly in the third quarter, have nobody but themselves to blame.
The next-to-worst free-throw shooting team in the league hit only 9-of-17 fourth-quarter free throws and 64.9 percent overall. The Bulls are 52-for-89 in their last three games.
“If we make our free throws [Saturday] and in our Golden State and Milwaukee games, I think we’re looking at a three-game winning streak,” coach Tim Floyd said.
The Bulls also got outrebounded 49-34 and were hurt by Othella Harrington, who scored 18 off the bench.
The bench is where veterans Greg Anthony and Charles Oakley found themselves for all but a combined two minutes in the fourth quarter.
“We were down 11 and laboring with scoring, so I was just looking for [scoring] infusion,” Floyd said.
