Bulls can't muster much effort against slumping Knicks

The original "Saturday Night Live" cast was known as the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players."

That should also be the title of any Chicago Bulls highlights from Thursday night's 104-89 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Sure, the Bulls were short-handed again, with Jimmy Butler and Nikola Mirotic back in Chicago getting over the flu. But Dwyane Wade was back in the lineup, the Knicks were without second-leading scorer Kristaps Porzingis (sore Achilles), and New York had lost nine of its last 10 games.

So the Bulls should have been competitive, but they weren't. At least not in the second half.

While Wade scored 22 points, the Bulls hit just 3 of 18 shots from 3-point range. Trailing 54-51 at halftime, the Bulls came out ice cold at the start of the third quarter and never seriously threatened, losing their third straight.

Rookie Denzel Valentine, coming off a season-high 19 points against the Wizards, was at the morning shootaround, then joined the sick bay by game time and did not play.

The biggest disappointment was Doug McDermott. With Butler out, McDermott went 2-for-16 from the field and 0-for-7 from 3-point land against the Wizards and Knicks.

Bobby Portis provided a lift Tuesday, but not this time as he finished with 2 points. Guard Jerian Grant had a decent night against his former team with 14 points.

Rookie second-round pick Paul Zipser got his first career start Thursday. He scored 7 points in 34 minutes and didn't have a ton of success guarding Carmelo Anthony, who led the Knicks with 23 points.

Rajon Rondo played off the bench as promised. He produced 8 assists and 4 points in 23 minutes. Before the game, TNT analyst Charles Barkley suggested the Bulls made a bad choice by signing Rondo last summer.

"(Coach) Fred Hoiberg's too nice of a guy to handle Rondo," Barkley said on the pregame show. "Rondo is temperamental. He's a heck of a player, but he's temperamental and at this stage of his career he's not going to change. And the Bulls should have known that going into the season. … It was never going to work, plain and simple. It's not going to work."

Fellow analyst Kenny Smith said he thought it could work, with Wade and Butler providing leadership, but he felt the Bulls' lack of outside shooters made it tough on Rondo.

"He's really good at drawing two defenders to kick it to one," Smith said. "When your one doesn't take that outside jump shot or knock it down, then his effectiveness is not there."

This was Derrick Rose's first game at Madison Square Garden since skipping Monday's loss to New Orleans. Rose returned home to Chicago on a family matter but didn't tell the team he wouldn't be at the game. He was fined but not suspended.

Rose played well, scoring 17 points. Ex-Bulls center Joakim Noah delivered another good game against his old team, contributing 12 points and 15 rebounds.

Bulls forward Taj Gibson was given a technical foul early in the game for playfully trash-talking Noah. Earlier in the day, Gibson stuck up for Rose.

"A lot of people misunderstand him because he's really one of the best, one of the greatest dudes I've ever been around," Gibson said, according to espn.com. "Off the court, personally; on the court, he's a great guy. He's never been negative. He's never been as you quote, unquote say, a hater. He's just an awesome dude, man. For real."

Hoiberg told reporters Butler is feeling better, so the team is hopeful he will return Saturday against New Orleans at the United Center.

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