The difficulty of beating the same team in back-to-back games was apparent from the first quarter of the Chicago Bulls’ 107-103 loss to the New York Knicks on Wednesday.
After losing at the United Center two nights prior, the Knicks came out like a team motivated, blitzing the Bulls with 34-17 in the first quarter. The Bulls rebounded from their sleepy start with a second-half charge, pulling to within three points late in the fourth quarter before the Knicks resumed control.
“We tried to essentially win the game in the last 12 minutes,” forward Thad Young said. “We can’t do that. We’re not a team that can just flip the switch on. The light has to be on at all times.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
1. A slow start for the Bulls.
Credit Tom Thibodeau for getting his team ready to make the necessary adjustments for playing a team a second straight time. These two-game sets have been compared to baseball series or even to a playoff series.
“We win the first game, now the Knicks are in their hotel, they’re mad,” forward Denzel Valentine said. “They’re going to come out with more intensity and ready to make a statement because they just played us and probably felt like they should’ve won.”
Thad Young added: “We knew they were going to come back and be even more physical, even more tougher. We knew that they were going to try to bounce back. It’s about imposing our will on the game early.”
Instead, the Bulls came out flat.
Knicks forward Julius Randle dominated in the paint and knocked down five 3-pointers, finishing with 27 points, six rebounds and six assists. The Bulls were outrebounded 47-38, and the Knicks scored 19 second-chance points.
“We just started slow,” guard Zach LaVine said. “Playing a team back-to-back they are going to bring the energy and the physicality; they are a very physical team and I felt they outphysicaled us at the beginning, and we tried to respond and it was too late.”
The Bulls are 8-12 through 20 games, which puts them right in the mix of the play-in tournament for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks (10-13) look like one of the teams they will have to compete with for the rest of the season.
LaVine took notice.
“Today was a big game,” he said. “It’s frustrating because I think if we’d have won, we’d have been tied for seventh. A lot of teams lost that we needed to lose today and it would have been big momentum shift. But it didn’t happen, so we have to put a little pressure on ourselves to go out there and get some in Orlando.”
2. An off-shooting night from beyond the arc.
Ultimately, it’s going to be hard to win games in the NBA when a team shoots so poorly from 3-point range, and the Bulls were undone by one of their worst shooting nights of the year from beyond the arc.
They began the day fifth in the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage at 38.6% but missed 13 consecutive 3-pointers at one point, including an 0-for-11 third quarter. The Bulls finished the game 6-for-36 (16.7%) from 3.
“When you’re going to play 72 games, you’re going to look at some nights and say, ‘We didn’t shoot the ball well.’ That was one of those nights,” coach Billy Donovan said. “We’ve got to competitively find different ways to win games, and I thought we were doing that in the fourth quarter.
“We were getting back into the game in the fourth quarter — not because we were making shots but because we were rebounding, we were physical, we were getting downhill, we got to the basket.”
The Bulls mostly limited their turnovers, committing only nine in the game, although they had a few costly giveaways down the stretch. They did spread the ball around well, finishing with 25 assists.
After the loss, the team seemed happy with their shot selection and believed they were taking open looks. But sometimes, the shots didn’t fall.
“The NBA is a long season, you’re going to have games like this,” Valentine said. “Billy was making a good point: You’re going to have games like this, but I didn’t think our intensity was there and our energy matched theirs.”
3. Denzel Valentine provides energy off bench.
With Otto Porter Jr. out with a lower back injury and his availability for this weekend’s back-to-back games against the Magic in Orlando, Fla., in jeopardy — he was ruled out for Friday — the Bulls were going to need an extra scoring spark off the bench.
Enter Denzel Valentine, who scored 13 points on 5-for-10 from the field with six rebounds and some key plays down the stretch to help ignite the comeback. The Bulls were pus-5 during Valentine’s 20 minutes on the floor.
“I thought he made some really good plays,” Donovan said. “I’d like to see him drive more because he’s such a good shooter, teams run out on him. He can get by people and he’s a really elite passer. He gave us a really good boost.”
Without two key members of their lineup — Porter and Wendell Carter Jr. — the Bulls stuck with a nine-man rotation Wednesday. And Valentine seems to have moved ahead of Chandler Hutchison on the depth chart, at least while the team is looking for more scoring.
“I’m still getting my rhythm,” Valentine said. “It’s tough being in and out. But, it’s the NBA. I’m a professional. I’m going to be ready whenever my number is called.”
Here’s more coverage from Wednesday night’s game:
The Chicago Bulls could not pull off a two-game sweep against the New York Knicks, dropping Wednesday’s game 107-103 at the United Center.
Following up a loss to the Bulls on Monday night, the Knicks blitzed the Bulls out of the gate and jumped out to a 34-17 lead in the first quarter. New York later withstood a second-half charge as the Bulls pulled within three points late in the fourth quarter before the Knicks resumed control.
Knicks forward Julius Randle dominated the Bulls in the paint and knocked down five three-pointers, finishing with 27 points, six rebounds and six assists. Zach LaVine scored a team-high 24 points for the Bulls with seven assists and Thad Young added 19 points, five rebounds and five steals off the bench.
The Bulls, who have had issues with turnovers, limited their issues and only posted nine in the game. But while they had a few critical errors down the stretch, the Bulls were undone by one of their worst shooting nights of the year from beyond the arc.
They began the day fifth in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage at 38.6%, but missed 13 consecutive three-pointers at one point during the game, including an 0-for-11 third quarter. The Bulls finished the game 6-for-36 from three, which is good for 16.7%.
