New York missed the only shot that mattered but fought hellaciously valiantly.
The New York Knicks suffered a heartbreaking 124-123 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, the day the Manhattanites opened a four-game homestand.
The Knicks, after rallying from a 22-point deficit, saw it all slip away due to a late foul by Josh Hart—who brushed Coby White’s afro—and a last-second miss by Jalen Brunson, whose shot went halfway through the rim only to somehow, inexplicably, bounce out.
With the Knicks back under .500 for the nth time this season, here’s a look at five takeaways from Wednesday’s loss.
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1. Karl-Anthony Towns dominates but can’t buy a freebie
Towns has been the MVP of the early Knicks season alongside OG Anunoby, and he demonstrated his talent once again on Wednesday, dropping a season-high 46 points, shooting 6-for-12 from three, and grabbing 10 rebounds.
His offensive output kept the Knicks in the game, but his missed free throws haunted both the team—and himself—in the end. Towns went 4-for-8 from the line, and those misses contributed significantly to the narrow loss.
“I expect to make them all,” Towns said after the game. “When you lose a close game, every point counts. You make some of those free throws, at least two to three of them, you put your team in a different position.”
This, however, was Towns’ fourth 30-point game in five outings, solidifying his role as the team’s top scorer and a bona fide 1B to Jalen Brunson’s 1A on the squad.
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2. Josh Hart’s foul on Coby White’s extraordinary afro ruins the day
There were as many seconds left as points needed by the Bulls to win the game. So, of course, Josh Hart had to make contact with a few follicles on Coby White’s head, prompting the refs to call a shooting foul on Hart and sending the Chicago guard to the charity stripe.
White didn’t miss a thing. The Bulls went up by one. Brunson missed the next shot, and that was it for everyone crammed inside Madison Square Garden.
“We lost the game because I fouled at the end,” Hart said. “There’s no silver lining. That one is on my shoulders.”
Hart’s foul was a devastating lapse in judgment, yes, but it was also a bad call. There, I said it. And I’m not the only one to think so.
Coming off a triple-double performance against the Sixers just one day before, Hart still contributed across the board with a 6-8-6 line. However, with this being the second leg of a back-to-back, it was evident that he—and every other Knick—was perhaps a bit gassed.
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3. Jalen Brunson plays through injury and nearly wins it
Playing through a sprained ankle and listed as questionable—along with fellow guards Cam Payne and Deuce McBride—Brunson managed to drop 24 points and 8 assists in just 34 minutes of playing time.
After making three shots in the first quarter, four in the second, and going quiet in the third, Brunson stepped up when it mattered most, scoring just two field goals in the fourth quarter but hitting the most crucial shots of the final frame.
Those shots came with the score tied at 119 and 121, with 37.1 and 4.1 seconds left in regulation, respectively. Both times, Brunson put the Knicks ahead, and both times, he was forced to regroup, trying to pull off yet another miracle.
“They contested it pretty well. But I’ve worked on that shot since high school,” Brunson said about his last-second field-goal attempt. “The ball was halfway down, but can’t really say much about it.”
On Wednesday, unfortunately, the third time wasn’t a charm for Brunson. Damn.
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4. Resilient Knicks don’t give up, complete 22-point comeback
Despite the disappointing finish, the Knicks’ ability to claw back from a 22-point deficit told us—or perhaps, more accurately, told everyone else—all the NBA landscape needs to know about this team and its resilience in any situation.
New York went on a ridiculous 17-0 run led by Towns, Mikal Bridges, and Cam Payne, with Bridges scoring 10 of his 20 points in the third quarter while Brunson sat for most of it.
Payne, logging a substantial 17 minutes off the bench, was flawless, shooting 4-for-4 from the field, including 3-for-3 from beyond the arc, providing a much-needed spark along with his full repertoire of rival-fan-maddening antics.
The comeback against the Bulls didn’t result in a win, but it was the Knicks’ largest of the season and was truly a sight to behold. Too bad it didn’t have a happy ending, but I’m pleased with the process, ifyouknowwhatimsaying.
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5. Defensive struggles pop up again
The Knicks’ defensive lapses were evident from the start, allowing the Bulls to shoot 54% from the floor and 39% from three. Meanwhile, the Knicks couldn’t quite keep up with the offensive volume, making defensive actions doubly critical.
Chicago’s Zach LaVine was unstoppable in the first half, scoring 19 of his 31 points through the first two quarters. White added 22 points, Vucci Mane scored 19, and Patrick Williams tallied 18 points on just nine shots. The Bulls’ top reserve, Ayo Dosunmu, also finished in double digits with 16.
The Bulls’ 26 fastbreak points (to New York’s 14) highlighted the Knicks’ struggles to keep pace in transition, which was somewhat expected, given that this was a matchup between the fastest of the slower teams in the Association.
“We have to be better defensively,” Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “You can’t put yourself in a hole and expect to fight back every game.”
The Bulls aren’t as poor a team as widely perceived, but allowing them to score 124 points was excessive (NYK is limiting opponents to 111.3 PPG), and even though the Knicks surpassed their team average of 114.9 PPG, they still fell short of matching Chicago’s tally.
Let’s chalk it up to a bunch of tired legs and wait for the Knickerbockers to come back fully rested, ready to hand the Nets a sour L on Friday.
Go Knicks!