Bulls toss up another clunker in blowout loss to Knicks
Anyone who has followed the Bulls all season knew this day was coming.
The Bulls have been shaky against teams they should beat and this one was as bad as it's been all year. Facing a short-handed New York Knicks lineup, the Bulls fell behind by 20 points in the second quarter and couldn't recover, losing 100-91 at Madison Square Garden and snapping their four-game win streak. The Bulls went 0-3 against New York this season.
The Knicks' no-names pounded the Bulls on the boards, winning the rebounds 53-36. The Bulls' run of good 3-point shooting ended with a thud, as they went 6-for-27 from behind the arc.
"You just look at the numbers on the glass, it tells you everything you need to know," coach Fred Hoiberg told reporters after the game. "They just had their way with us, one guy beating three guys to the ball. We were careless, 15 turnovers. That's not how you win games."
Jimmy Butler led the Bulls with 26 points, while Nikola Mirotic added 21. The only other player who had a decent night was Anthony Morrow, who was sent in as a desperate move and scored 15.
Carmelo Anthony returned after missing the past two games with a sore back, but forward Kristaps Porzingis sat down with a sore back. With Derrick Rose (knee) and Joakim Noah (suspension) out for the year, the Knicks didn't exactly send out a stellar starting lineup. New York used Ron Baker, Courtney Lee, Willy Hernangomez and Maurice Ndour with Anthony.
The Bulls got off to a fast start offensively, hitting their first four shots, but allowed New York to keep pace. The Bulls trailed 29-24 after the first quarter and then their offense shut down.
The reserves had a rough start to the second quarter, going 0-for-6 from the field with 4 turnovers during a 9-0 Knicks run. The Bulls didn't register their first points in the quarter until the 6:35 mark on a Mirotic dunk.
"We've gotten much better at not letting our offense effect our defense," Hoiberg said. "Our lack of shot-making definitely affected us on the other end tonight. We weren't playing as a unit on the defensive end of the floor. You're going to go through droughts. Obviously, we went through several of them tonight. We missed a lot of shots that we had been making and we let it effect us on the other end, More importantly, we let it effect us on loose balls and toughness plays and physical play. During the four-game win streak, we were very good on the glass. Today we just got our butts kicked."
The low point came midway through the third quarter when Anthony buried a deep 3-pointer to put the Knicks up by 21. Hoiberg called timeout and when it ended, the Bulls managed to botch the inbounds pass. Rajon Rondo decided to tie his shoe, Mirotic threw the inbound pass anyway and New York's Ndour sprinted over to grab the ball and draw a foul. His free throws pushed the lead to 69-46.
Rondo fell hard after colliding with Hernangomez while chasing a rebound in the third quarter. He stayed in the game for a little bit, but did not play in the fourth quarter.
The Bulls got as close as 12 early in the fourth, but three missed shots led to three fastbreak lay-ins for New York and before you knew it, the Bulls were down by 20 again. They finally got within single digits in the final two minutes and had a chance to get closer, but Butler missed a shot, Anthony drew a foul on the other end and that was that.
Earlier in the day, injured guard Dwyane Wade joined the Bulls at shootaround. Wade missed his 10th game Tuesday with a right elbow sprain. He is working to return if the Bulls make the playoffs.
"He's doing a lot," Hoiberg said, according to espn.com. "As far as shooting, there's no restrictions right now getting out there. Still not doing much contact. But he is ramping up activity, doing more and more every day. The biggest thing right now is to keep his conditioning."
"We definitely need that guy, as everybody knows," Butler said. "We want him to come back to where he's not protecting anything, he's hooping, he's playing 110 percent and doing what he's been doing."
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