The Knicks made things interesting thanks to a huge third quarter, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to overcome a sloppy start in a 119-115 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.
In terms of overall shooting, the Knicks had a strong night, shooting 51.2 percent overall and 34.6 percent from beyond the arc, but the stat that jumped out for the Knicks was the turnover column. They turned the ball over 18 times as a team, including 12 in the first half.
“We started slowly, long game, fought our way out, third quarter I thought got us going. We had a good shot at the end and we fell short,” said head coach Tom Thibodeau.
“I thought we fought hard, but again, we fell short, and I thought the thing that hurt us more than anything were the turnovers.”
The Bulls took advantage of the early turnovers, leading by 18 points after one quarter and stretching their biggest lead to 21 points later in the game.
The Knicks climbed back into the game thanks to a strong third, outscoring Chicago 32-20, but the comeback effort ultimately fell short.
Julius Randle led the way with 30 points and also added 12 rebounds and six assists, but it was his seven turnovers and poor defensive communication that perturbed him after the game.
“Turnovers were bad the [in] first half. I had seven. I had way too many,” Randle said. “And just defensive communication. Like (Nikola Vucevic) is a really tough cover because he’s a seven-footer that pops, and then they have two really dynamic guards who can really score the ball, so it makes it tough. Our communication, our effort and fight and just multiple efforts was a lot better in the second half.”
With the loss, the Knicks are now 11-11 on the season, including wins in just four of their last 11 games. Still, Randle is confident the Knicks can turn things around and get things moving in the right direction.
“We’ll find it, we’ll find it. We’ve just got to understand we’ve got to lock up defensively, we’ve got to get guys healthy, full strength out there, and we’ll be fine,” Randle said. “It’s 22 games in. A great run could put as at the top of the East within two weeks. So just keep plugging but understand we’ve got to have a sense of urgency too.”