Takeaways & Player Grades: Bulls Hang Around But Can't Close Against Knicks (105-99)

Hey, at least the Chicago Bulls avoided a beatdown!

One night after facing the top team in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls had to welcome the East's third-best squad into the United Center. A similar ugly fate felt like it was in the cards, especially with sharpshooter Anfernee Simons ruled out before tip-off.

However, the Bulls surprisingly held their own for much of the night in the 105-99 defeat. It wasn't until the final seconds that the Knicks' superstar prowess proved to be too much to overcome. An all-too-familiar problem for this starless Bulls team.

3 Takeaways

The Depth Makes It Interesting

If the Chicago Bulls wanted to make things interesting against this New York Knicks team, they were going to have to make their threes and lean on their bench. To their credit, they did exactly that throughout much of the first half.

They started the night with 13 of their 21 shot attempts in the first quarter coming from long range. They knocked down five of those to help them gain a surprising early advantage. To be sure, the basketball may not have been the prettiest from either squad, but the Bulls were playing hard for the second night in a row and making things interesting.

Indeed, the decently hot shooting start felt very similar to what we saw 24 hours prior against Detroit. The only problem in that matchup was that a cold front moved in during the second quarter, and the Bulls started to see the game slip away. They were able to avoid that outcome this time around because of some very solid play from their second unit.

New York has averaged the fourth-fewest bench points per game this season. Depth has been a major question mark all year long, and it's a big reason they were connected to possible upgrades at the deadline. The Bulls did what they needed to do in the minutes that Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns weren't on the floor. Nick Richards, in particular, checked into the game and brought some much-needed physicality into the paint.

The Bulls started the night with a 15-4 advantage in bench points. While the Knicks were eventually able to close the gap a bit thanks to some timely Landry Shamet threes, this balanced offensive attack for the Bulls was arguably the biggest reason for their 53-52 halftime lead. Four players entered the break with at least 7 points, while three had at least 9 points. Especially when we consider how new this group is, it was encouraging to see them so willing to share the ball and play off one another.

Towns Takeover

Despite both Guerschon Yabusele and Nick Richards having their moments tonight, the Chicago Bulls simply didn't have an answer for Karl-Anthony Towns. The big man struggled to start the year but has started to turn things around at the best time for New York. He now has five straight games with 20+ points, finishing this one off as the game's top scorer with 28 points on 10-17 shooting.

Time and again, the Bulls found themselves leaving Towns open from behind the arc. He drained two big ones in a tight fourth quarter, which included the pull-up bucket that gave New York a 97-95 lead with 2:34 left on the clock. The Bulls finally looked ready to press him along the perimeter on the next possession down the floor, but he attacked the overzealous close-out off the bounce and finished a smooth finger roll at the rim.

Towns ultimately scored 11 points in the final frame to help clinch another clutch win for the Knicks. The energetic Bulls genuinely had them on the ropes, but New York now moves to 31-1 this season when leading games after three quarters.

It Happened Again ...

Chicago Bulls fans can essentially expect two things going into any game: (1) An unfortunate injury, and (2) a questionable coaching decision.

The former happened in the third quarter, as the Bulls announced that Jalen Smith would not return to the game with calf tightness. The big man had missed multiple games earlier this month with the same issue, raising concerns about what this tweak could mean moving forward. Already strapped for size, having to sit him for an extended period of time could make a bad situation worse.

As for the coaching decision, Billy Donovan chose to pull Matas Buzelis from the game with roughly 1 minute to go. The Bulls were down just 99-95, and the forward had given them the lead on a pull-up triple only a couple of minutes prior. Clearly, Donovan saw something he didn't like, but shouldn't Buzelis be on the floor in these critical moments? If he is truly a key building block, allowing him to play through mistakes and experience high-stakes final possessions should be part of the process.

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