NEW YORK — The Chicago Bulls seemed poised to repeat an all-too-common curse of this season throughout the second half of their 119-115 win over the New York Knicks on Thursday night.
The Bulls built a 21-point lead only to let it be erased by a roaring third-quarter performance by the Knicks, nearly squandering the first leg of their New York trip.
This is nothing new for the Bulls. Coach Billy Donovan hammered the importance of strong third quarters after brutal losses to the Portland Trail Blazers and the Houston Rockets. His players knew that no lead — even if it was 21 points, even if all three stars seemed to be firing — was big enough to outlast an opposing surge out of the locker room.
The Knicks dropped 25 points in the first six minutes of the second half, clawing their way back within two points as the Bulls wilted on defense under a flurry of 3-pointers from Evan Fournier. The Bulls were outscored 32-20 in the third quarter, then the Knicks kept chipping away until a bank shot from Julius Randle gave them a one-point lead with 4 minutes, 32 seconds remaining.
The Bulls struggled all night to find an answer for Randle, an issue they had in the teams’ prior two matchups. The 6-foot-8, 250-pound power forward created an indomitable force in the paint that the Bulls couldn’t match.
Javonte Green — who is 6-foot-5 — guarded Randle for most of the night with center Nikola Vučević helping off the ball to manage the power forward’s length.
The Knicks kept their lead for only handfuls of seconds at a time as the game devolved into a back-and-forth slugfest between Randle and the Bulls’ star trio of DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Vučević. DeRozan hit a step-back jumper, only to have Randle match it on the next play. LaVine and Randle traded layups, then Alex Caruso picked Randle’s pocket to give LaVine an open lane for a transition layup.
While Randle couldn’t be slowed down the stretch, DeRozan, LaVine and Vučević produced enough of a counter to hold off an imminent comeback.
DeRozan led the group with 34 points, while Vučević and LaVine scored 27 each as the trio combined for 88 of the team’s 119 points.
Frustration bubbled over for the Knicks before the first quarter had passed. Taj Gibson shouted down the referees after the team picked up back-to-back offensive fouls, earning a tidy pair of technicals and a quick exit from Madison Square Garden. The crowd reached a fever pitch of boos as Gibson showed himself off the court.
The Knicks already were short-handed — starting guard R.J. Barrett was ruled out with a non-COVID-19-related illness, adding another starter to the injury list alongside Jericho Sims, Nerlens Noel and Kemba Walker.
Vučević was poised to match a season-high 30-point performance from earlier in the week when he scored 13 points in first quarter. It was the center’s first double-digit opening quarter of the season, and the strong start seemed to bode well for the Bulls.
For two quarters, everything was firing in the Bulls’ favor for a win. Vučević threw down a running dunk and showed confidence in his pick-and-pop chances from 3-point range. DeRozan danced through the defense for his midrange specialties, whirling through a spin move in transition to stun his defender in the third quarter. LaVine hit a pair of 3-pointers to match his typical pace despite still being bleary from a continued illness.
The Bulls’ secondary unit offered relief despite missing Coby White, who tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the trip. Ayo Dosunmu stepped into a heavier workload to fill the hole left by White’s absence. The rookie led a high-flying transition combination by bench players in the second quarter, snagging a pass from Derrick Jones Jr. to float a lob for a Caruso smash-down dunk.
After playing only six minutes in the last four games, Troy Brown entered the first half to drop five points in a run of six minutes.
The Bulls visit the New Jersey Nets on Saturday.
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