Knicks 104, Bulls 103: “I was 32 years old at the start of this game. I am now 354 years old.”

Late game execution almost doomed the Knicks after it looked like they were going to cruise to a win over the Chicago Bulls, but they held on for a one-point win over the previously-undefeated Chicago on the road.

I was 32 years old at the start of this game. I am now 354 years old. A classic, it was not. But the good guys got the dub, 104-103. The New York Knicks are now 4-1 on the season, handing the Chicago Bulls their first defeat of the campaign in the process. 

The narratives were there: a rivalry of ’90s titans renewed, two ascending All-Stars squaring off, the shared celebration of the numerous Knicks that will forever be associated with the Bulls, the championship belt of Cute-Overachieving-Eastern-Conference-Surprise-Team was at stake.

Who wants it more? Which team would claim The Hype? What would become of The Good Team that happened to lose to The Other Good Team on this night of regular season nights?

In the first half, both teams showed tantalizing flashes of the top-end brilliance that infused this matchup with so much pregame hype, but neither could string together more than a handful of authoritative minutes, as the game flirted with ignition, flitted back and forth, but never quite burst into flames.

The Knicks took control in the third quarter, paced by the scintillating Kemba Walker (21 points on 5-6 from three), a relentless RJ Barrett (20 points on 53% shooting, while shouldering the team’s toughest defensive assignment, again), and a dominant but occasionally dicey Julius Randle (13 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists). 

Randle scored the Knicks’ final points of the night with 2:59 remaining in the final frame, stretching the lead to a comfortable 104-91, before the Bulls stormed back with a 12-0 run, giving themselves a chance to steal the win with the last shot of the night. 

Those last few minutes felt excruciating: ill-advised fouls sending the Bulls to the line, an over-reliance on bleeding the game clock, force-feeding Randle isolations versus the feisty Lonzo Ball. It wasn’t pretty, and the headline from the game will be about fragile late-game offense rather than the encouraging two-way superiority of the previous 45 minutes.

With this in mind, let’s dive in to those offensive possessions during this stretch: 

First possession of the drought: Kemba turned down the two-man game with Randle that worked so well in the Sixers game — because Alex Caruso and Lonzo aren’t Seth Curry and Georges Niang — instead opting to bring Mitchell Robinson up for a ball screen, smartly involving the defensively-cumbersome Nikola Vucevic in the action. Mitch sets a bad screen, rolling far too quickly, and Kemba called for it too late, with just 10 seconds left to shoot, so that when the pick-and-roll comes to nothing, we’re left with a late-clock iso for Randle at the nail. He misses a tough shot. But the process was fine, the execution lacking.

Second possession of the drought: straight into a Randle wing isolation, but Lonzo battles hard and delays the entry pass, and holds his ground on the catch. Even so, the defense is tilted Randle’s way, and he finds RJ on the kick-out for a contested three, but an OK three, which is missed.

Third possession of the drought: Kemba-Julius pick-and-pop at the top of the key into a Randle-Fournier dribble handoff on the wing. Fournier gets a great look from deep — as he so often does on this action — but misses. Offensive rebound by Mitch, Kemba resets, before hitting Randle at the nail again for an iso on Lonzo. Randle loses the ball and the Knicks eventually turn it over.

Fourth possession of the drought: It’s now 104-98. Kemba gets into a horns set with one minute on the game clock and 14 on the shot clock. Randle slips to the rim, and Kemba attacks Vooch off the Mitch screen, but again Mitch fails to make contact on the screen, meaning Caruso stays attached and the ball is poked out of bounds. This, again, is good process, bad execution. Off the sideline out-of-bounds quick hitter, Fournier comes off a wide pin down for a well-contested three that almost drops — a good shot — before Randle gets the rebound but misses his easiest shot of the night.

Fifth possession of the drought: It’s now 104-101. Kemba gets a high ball screen from Mitch with 30 seconds remaining. It’s a better screen this time, but Vooch shows and Caruso gets over the top, stalling the play. Kemba reverts to a straight isolation on Caruso, who defends it brilliantly and forces a tough miss.

That was their last full possession. Up by one and with the Bulls playing the foul game, Burks struggles to get the ball inbounds, is forced to call a timeout, then almost turns it over throwing it inbounds, before Randle is finally fouled but uncharacteristically misses two free throws. The problem through all this was not offensive process, but offensive execution, and great perimeter defense by Caruso and Ball. The even bigger problem was allowing the Bulls to score so quickly between every trip down the floor: giving up 12 points in less than three minutes is worse than scoring zero points in the same span. Transition defense, just as it was in the Orlando Magic loss, was the biggest issue down the stretch.

This wasn’t, as Clyde Frazier called it, “an inexplicable unravelling,” but bad Knicks defense coupled with good Bulls defense, with some offensive growing pains and squeaky-bum decision making sprinkled on top. The headline from this game should be: if the Knicks can put together 48 minutes of consistent two-way execution — something we shouldn’t reasonably expect five games in to the season — they are going to be very difficult to beat.

Find a way to win, Tom Thibodeau has said a thousand times. It wasn’t pretty, but the Knicks left with what they came for, aided yet again by RJ Barrett successfully contesting a potential game-winner from one of the toughest tough-shot makers in the world. Kemba’s shooting gives this offense an elite ceiling. Robinson’s availability gives this team an elite defensive ceiling. Randle continues to struggle shooting the ball, while showing glimpses of spectacular playmaking. Barrett, Fournier, and Rose all had their moments. And on and on down the deepest bench in the league.

It wasn’t a classic, and it wasn’t perfect, but this was a much better win than those tortuous last few minutes down the stretch suggest. 

The Knicks have the fourth-best net rating in the NBA, and are top of the Eastern Conference. How long have we been waiting to be able to say that? Three hundred and fifty-four years, give or take, right?