5 takeaways after beating the New York Knicks

NEW YORK — For the last eight minutes of Wednesday’s 124-123 win over the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls just focused on trading punches.

The Bulls had already squandered a 22-point lead, a fate that seemed inevitable when matched up against one of the most efficient offenses in the league in front of a packed Madison Square Garden crowd. And the final stretch of the game was stuffed with defensive miscues and missteps.

Zach LaVine got switched onto Karl-Anthony Towns and could only stick his arms up and slide in coverage as the forward took him to the rim. OG Anunoby waltzed into the paint unmarked for a transition layup. Nikola Vučević whiffed on another Towns drive. Jalen Brunson danced around Patrick Williams on back-to-back possessions to punch in a jumper and a layup to repetitively retake the Knicks’ lead.

But the Bulls always had an antidote to their mistakes. And when the Bulls’ final offensive play — an attempted lob from Josh Giddey to a cutting LaVine — misfired with three seconds left on the clock, Coby White was there to take a 3-pointer and draw a foul off Josh Hart, sinking all three free throws to claim a final one-point advantage.

By the time Brunson attempted to float a third and final shot over Williams to win the game on a buzzer-beater, the magic of the Knicks’ comeback had worn off. The ball rolled around every curve of the rim, flirted dangerously with the net and then shotputted back into the air, earning a confused symphony of groans as the Bulls snuck out of the Mecca with a win.

“I just turned around,” LaVine said after the win. “And then I heard the crowd react and go, ‘Ahhhh.’ And I was like, ‘Oh shoot, we won.’ I thought it was going in. Sometimes the ball goes that way.”

Here are five takeaways from the win.

1. The Knicks tried to slow down a white-hot Zach LaVine.

For the final four minutes of the first half, LaVine elevated to a slightly different plane of offense. He ripped off 14 points in quick succession, firing off 3-pointers in the fast break, off the step back and in any other opportunity he could spy. LaVine’s sharp shooting — 4-for-5 from 3-point range in the second quarter — lifted the Bulls to a double-digit lead.

In the second half, the Knicks committed themselves to taking the ball out of LaVine’s hands. He was hounded on every inch of the hardwood — Brunson and Anunoby springing traps to push him toward the half-court line, Towns out with both hands held high to push him toward the baseline. This spurred LaVine into a team-high six turnovers.

Despite going 0-for-3 behind the arc in the second half, LaVine still finished with 31 points by attacking the rim and remaining persistent in transition.

2. Clashing styles favored the Bulls — at first.

LaVine’s best play of the game isn’t up for argument — it came with four minutes left in the third quarter when he blocked a shot by Anunoby, tipped the ball to White, then sprinted the full length of the court to collect an over-the-top pass for a step-through layup and a foul.

ZACH. LAVINE.@CHSN__ | @ZachLaVine pic.twitter.com/V8mmmXTJpi

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 14, 2024

The play highlighted the distinct differences between the Knicks and the Bulls, who operate on completely different sides of the NBA’s spectrum of pace. The Bulls are the fastest team in the league. The Knicks are the slowest. But New York’s efficient and methodical approach to the half court has garnered one of the best offensive ratings (118.6, fourth) in the NBA, providing a task for the Bulls’ underwhelming defense.

On a different night, this stylistic difference likely would have favored New York from the jump, with their efficiency allowing them to set the tempo and grind the Bulls down to a halt. But the Knicks were fresh off an NBA Cup game on the road in Philadelphia the night before, an exhaustion factor that left them on the back foot in the first two quarters.

The Bulls capitalized on this advantage, outscoring the Knicks in fastbreak scoring 14-3 in the first half and 26-14 over the course of the game.

3. The Bulls squandered a 22-point lead with a third-quarter collapse.

Any sports fan who argues momentum is a myth would have been disproved Wednesday in the final four-minute stretch of the third quarter at Madison Square Garden.

After LaVine’s dazzling full-court play, the Knicks dug their heels in — and immediately got down to the business of scoring 17 unanswered points. The flurry of scoring was fueled by Towns and Hart as the Bulls turned the ball over three times in less than four minutes. And then Towns caught a pass on the perimeter, sent Dalen Terry flying into the bench with a jerky shot-fake and drove to the rim for a thunderous dunk with five seconds remaining to punctuate the disastrous collapse.

Terry heaved a desperate pass up the court to Matas Buzelis, who couldn’t reach the ball before it ricocheted out of bounds. And the Bulls ended the quarter with their advantage diminished to only five points.

4. Patrick Williams made an impact from the start.