The Knicks put up a putrid first quarter vs. the Bulls, but stormed back to take the lead late before ultimately faltering and losing to the second-best team in the East by record.

I didn’t watch the entirety of the New York Knicks’ 119-115 loss to the Chicago Bulls live last night. My family watches most games with me, but my daughter very much wanted to watch Sabrina, the remake of the classic film (not the Archie series). After the movie I checked my DVR, only to see for some reason the game hadn’t recorded. I’d seen the first quarter and checked my phone during the movie, so I knew what started as a blowout became competitive late. That’s the shape the game took. What that means is entirely dependent on your perspective. But what is perspective?

For example: last night was New York’s 22nd game this season; they now stand 11-11. Maybe that’s OK? Then again, not all 11-11s are created equally: the Knicks began the season 5-1, meaning they’ve gone 6-10 since. Maybe there’s a problem. Then again, last season the Knicks also lost their 22nd game, also to Chicago, to fall to 9-13. Maybe things are better now? Last season it took them seven weeks from that Bulls’ loss to get above .500, another month to reach two games over and another three weeks to hit three games over. It’s probably fair to say things with the Knicks are OK and they have problems. Progress takes many forms: sometimes just having comparable issues with your contemporaries is reason to celebrate. But while you appreciate your position, you should always be planning your promotion.

The Bulls have earned their promotion this year from lottery perennial to the penultimate penthouse in the East. In some ways they are the Knicks’ contemporaries; in others, they seem to have lapped them. The Knicks are in year two of their renaissance, yet stand 15th in offensive rating and 19th on the defensive end; the Bulls, in year one of what they hope is their new normal, rank top-10 in both. Chicago’s Big 3 featuring Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vučević combined for 88 points on 56% shooting. Who are the Knicks’ Big 3? Julius Randle put up 30/12/6, shot 67% and even blocked a couple of shots. RJ Barrett was out with a non-COVID illness. Who’s the third Knicketeer? How about Evan Fournier?

That clip makes it look like maybe no, but as Stacy Patton has stated repeatedly this year (most recently on the new Bleav Knicks pod featuring him and yours truly!), Fournier is this team’s bellwether. Exhibit A: last night New York trailed by 18 at the half, which is when Randle and Fournier had their not-so-private tête-à-tête. The second half opened with both players showing the scoring touch, sparking a furious comeback. Immanuel Quickley, starting in place of Barrett, had his fingerprints all over the run.

The problem for the Knicks — besides a tsunami of turnovers in the first quarter that reproduced like Tribbles — was they put themselves too far down in the early going; winning the second half 64-50 was too little, too late. Comebacks require maximizing your end of things while hoping the other team goes cold and stays cold. The Bulls didn’t, DeRozan in particular. The Midrange Mamba put the baby to sleep.

The Knicks can be encouraged by a lot of things. Randle has pulled a 180 from his early-season 3-point slant, very much to the other extreme. Mitchell Robinson reached the 30-minute mark for just the fourth time this season, and in the second half reminded the world what Paint Master Mitch can do, which was especially valuable in a game where Nerlens Noel was out and Taj Gibson was ejected after three minutes for having a pulse. Fournier, Burks and Derrick Rose each scored 16, with IQ adding 15; Burks continues to look comfortable as the starting point guard. 

The Knicks can be discouraged, too. The Bulls are getting pretty much all they could hope for, if not more, from a number of their key players this year: LaVine, DeRozan, and Vučević are the obvious ones. But Lonzo Ball putting up 12, five, and five while making 43% of his seven 3-point attempts a night? Alex Caruso adding four rebounds and four assists along with smothering All-NBA defense? Ball and Caruso average four steals a game between them. How many Knicks are meeting or exceeding expectations so far? Obi Toppin, yes. Rose. Burks. Quickley. None of those guys are top-5 on the Knicks in minutes per game. 

The Knicks lost to the second-best team (by record) in their conference. There’s no shame in that. They’ve dealt with injuries and absences all season. No shame there either. There’s been a lot of change to contend with, from beginning the season with a new point guard in Kemba Walker to making the shift to Burks this past week. Also fair. At some point the Knicks need to progress from understandable struggles to busting through. Hopefully the final 36 minutes are more what we see moving forward than the first 12 were.

Notes

• Caruso with the Antichrist stat line: six points, six rebounds, six assists. He also had four steals and was +21 in 30 minutes despite shooting just 2-7. That dude is such a smart passer; instead of swinging the ball to an open teammate who’d face a closeout, Caruso frequently whipped it to the guy the teammate would have looked to swing to. What a random, fun player.

• Randle is tired of the refs and talking about the refs:

The officiating is obviously in his headspace. Which, again, is fair: when even Mike Breen keeps publicly calling out the referees, that tells you how uneven the games have been called this year.

• A rare first-half cameo for Kevin Knox, who hit a 3-pointer and failed to box out multiple times. He did not play in the second half.

The murderer’s row of games the Knicks have had the past few weeks might — might — have ended prematurely. Denver comes to New York for a 1:00 p.m. game tomorrow, but the Nuggets are without Michael Porter Jr. for the season and Jamal Murray is nowhere near a return, either. They’ve dropped seven of their last eight games. On the other hand, they still have reigning MVP Nikola Jokić, somehow playing even better this year, and while good teams don’t often lose seven of eight, they lose eight of nine even more rarely. So the Knicks will need to step up to win tomorrow. You’ll know then if things are getting better or if there’s a problem.