The Chicago Bulls pushed the reigning champion New York Knicks all the way to the finish line Wednesday night at the United Center, but Jalen Brunson made sure the visitors walked out with the 133-127 win.
That outcome won’t soften the loss much for Chicago, yet there was real value in the way the Bulls went after the game. In a rebuilding year, and only five games into the season, this was the kind of effort Tiago Splitter and Bryson Graham can live with: 48 minutes of fight, responses to New York’s runs, and a long stretch where the Bulls looked unbothered by the titleholders across from them.
Chicago came out attacking from the opening tip. Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis set that tone early, with Wilson throwing down two dunks in just two minutes and Buzelis drawing free throws twice in his first-quarter run.
Leonard Miller chipped in with an and-one drive, while Isaac Okoro went 3-4 at the line. The Bulls weren’t exactly flying past New York in transition, but their legs were fresh enough to beat the Knicks to spots and pressure the rim.
That approach paid off at the stripe. New York struggled to keep Chicago out of the paint cleanly, and the Bulls went 8-11 from the free throw line in the opening quarter.
They kept that pressure going in the second, adding 10 more free throws in a frame where they shot just 11-27 from the floor but still carried a 62-56 lead into halftime. Chicago was only 13-21 from the line in the first half, but the physical style worked in its favor even when the offense got messy.
The Knicks, coming off their first win of the season just 24 hours earlier, looked worn down on both ends. That showed up around the rim, where they shot 9-24 from the restricted area in the first half and also missed several layups they should have finished. Their three-point volume was out of the ordinary too: New York took 21 threes in the first half after averaging only 36 total over its first four games.
Chicago stretched the margin to as many as 19 points, but the Knicks did what they do best and started ripping through the deficit from deep. They hit seven threes in the third quarter, then followed with an 8-13 showing from beyond the arc in the fourth. Brunson put the game away with 14 points in the final period, including three made triples, and New York’s closing surge was enough to flip the result.
The Bulls did not go quietly. They matched New York’s perimeter scoring for stretches down the stretch, but four turnovers in the fourth quarter gave the Knicks the opening they needed. New York turned those mistakes into 11 points.
Even so, the third quarter gave Chicago something to point at beyond the final score. That’s been a rough period for the Bulls early this season, with the Washington Wizards finishing the quarter at plus-20 and the Boston Celtics at plus-18 against them.
Against a team that had just posted a plus-24 third quarter against the Pistons on Tuesday, Chicago needed to survive the middle stretch and did more than survive. The ball kept moving, the lead kept growing, and for a while the Bulls controlled the game.
Jalen Smith helped spark one of the best sequences of the night with a stop at the rim, then Matas Buzelis pushed the pace, Josh Giddey attacked the basket, and Caleb Wilson finished the possession from deep. Norman Powell was huge in that stretch too, going a perfect 4-4 from the field and scoring 14 points in the quarter.
The Knicks still closed the third with a 22-7 run that included five threes, trimming the Bulls’ lead to 96-90 heading into the fourth. From there, New York took back control early and turned the game into a back-and-forth finish.
For Chicago, the sting is obvious. It was a missed chance, especially with a brutal stretch of games ahead. But the Bulls also showed growth, especially in that third quarter, and that matters in a season like this.
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