New York coach Mike Brown was straight to the point when addressing where the Knicks need to improve ahead of Sunday’s home clash with the undefeated Chicago Bulls.
It will mark the long-time Eastern Conference rivals’ second meeting in three days, after the Bulls claimed a 135-125 NBA Cup group-opening win in Chicago on Friday.
The Knicks battled hard after half-time, but the 22-point hole they stumbled into late in the second quarter — trailing 72-50 — was simply too deep.
“Real simple tonight,” Brown said. “We lacked the physicality that we wanted to have and that we’ve been showing on the defensive end. Our ability to guard the basketball was not good in the first half. We were getting blown by, possession after possession after possession. … Our defense, in the first half especially, was non-existent, and it starts with guarding the basketball.”
Jalen Brunson scored 29 points, OG Anunoby had 26 and Mikal Bridges added 23.
Karl-Anthony Towns paired 22 points with 10 rebounds despite playing with a right quad strain.
All four, again, loom as key figures in the return bout against the Bulls.
“We’ve lost three in a row. We’ve hit some adversity early in the season. I’ll be interested to see how we respond,” Brown said. ” … It’s early, but it’s a great test for us. I’m looking to see what type of resiliency we have as a group.”
Chicago is off to its strongest start to a season since the Michael Jordan era.
The Bulls’ 5-0 start is their best since the 1996-97 season, when they sprinted to 12-0 before going on to capture their fifth of six championships with Jordan.
Josh Giddey, in the best form of his life, has been central to Chicago’s surge.
The Australian’s 32-point haul against New York was a new career-best, complemented by 10 boards and nine assists.
Giddey is averaging career-highs of 22.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and 8.0 assists, while demonstrating marked improvement from 3-point range, connecting at a 45.5% clip.
“I’m feeling good,” Giddey said. “Credit to my teammates and coaches for putting me in positions to be successful. They trust me to make plays, and I trust myself and trust my work to make the right plays.”
Bulls coach Billy Donovan, who celebrated his 200th win at the helm, praised Giddey’s performance.
“I didn’t love, personally, the amount of minutes (38:29) I played him, but he was playing well,” he said.
” .. He was downhill, he got to the free-throw line, he shot some threes, he made some really good passes. I thought in the first half he really was the catalyst – even in plays he wasn’t involved. I thought all the way around he played a great game.”
The Bulls saw their massive lead scaled right back to two points, before showing poise down the stretch to seal the result.
Despite his team’s blistering form, Donovan isn’t underestimating the Knicks.
“They’re a really, really good team,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of size, they’re starting to get healthy, they’re all good off the dribble, they all shoot it. So, you knew they were going to make a run. But I was just happy with the way our guys kept their poise.”
