Knicks Fend Off Former Teammate Guerschon Yabusele's Bulls

He's enjoyed more freedom with the Bulls than he had with the Knicks, and that was a credit to his poor fit in New York. Asked to fill in as a reserve forward, his jump shot failed to hold up with less-consistent minute expectations, and his lack of defense quickly made clear that he wouldn't be a Knick for long.

Yabusele landed on his feet in Chicago, averaging over 10 points per game in a role that much more closely resembled the kind that he'd played prior to his New York stint. And he enjoyed a positive-enough excursion when faced with his old friends, scoring 11 points on 4 of 8 shooting and three 3-pointers.

That wouldn't be enough to hold off the Knicks, though, as his Bulls fell in an overly dramatic 105-99 showdown. As happy as his former teammates were to see him, they came prepared to counter the empowered stretch-big.

Knicks Turning Off Chicago's Water

The Bulls' starting lineup alone canned 11 threes, but the Knicks held strong in the face of early deficits to knock down 16 of their own. Karl-Anthony Towns, the center to whom Yabusele saw his perimeter-oriented role swallowed up by, particularly flourished from the field in nabbing 28 points on 10/17 shooting and five makes from beyond the arc.

Yabusele also came prepared, willing to control the boards, with the 6-foot-7 big body having to start at the five on the guard-oriented Bulls. While Towns' 11 rebounds couldn't quite match Yabusele's 13, hustling wings in OG Anunoby and Josh Hart contributed 18 more, and Hart was sure to rub some of his own success in the new Bull's face.

Despite the theatrics, there's clearly no bad blood between Yabusele and the players on the squad he departed. After all, they rebounded fairly strongly themselves in dumping him to Chicago, trading for Jose Alvarado with some of the assets they got back from the Bulls and signing buyout prospect Jeremy Sochan with the money they had saved left over.

They're shaping up to meaningfully contend for the honor of doing what they couldn't last season by winning the East, and while Yabusele lacks that same team-oriented upside at his current stop, he has the freedom to play the high-usage basketball that he wants. In their own way, everyone won from the exchange, and that was reflected in the weekend's outing.