Bulls’ Momentum Grinds to Halt in Tragic Collapse at Madison Square Garden
The Bulls seemed like a team destined to prove all of their doubters wrong over the last week. Until Tuesday night, when they crashed back to earth in the most familiar way possible.
Does the title seem a touch overdramatic? It very well might be, or at the very least, it’s hyperbolic. I would accept either criticism.
But let’s really break this down for a moment and think about what we just witnessed. The Bulls, inexplicably latching onto a seventh seed in the woeful Eastern Conference, have actually played quality basketball since last week. As of last Sunday, the Bulls have:
- won a game on the road in Milwaukee, 109–94.
- continued their #TNTBulls streak by beating the Cavs, 99–93.
- propelled themselves to the seventh seed by beating the Hawks, 106–104.
- defeated Boogie and the Pelicans the day after, 117–110.
This is a team with no identity and without Dwyane Wade in the lineup, with an apathetic, low-energy coach somehow dominating, in the context of what they bring to the table, some pretty decent teams. They took a four-game win streak and playoff aspirations to Madison Square Garden, where they would face a 29–48 New York Knicks team missing Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. A fifth win in a row was all but inevitable.
And yet, true to the form of the 2016/17 Bulls, the hands fell off the clock, and any semblance of momentum they brought with them to New York had evaporated by the end of their 100–91 loss Tuesday night.
The score is a lot kinder than the game itself actually was for the Bulls. Both teams shot well in the first, and the Knicks only led 29–24 after one.
But then it got ugly — Fred Hoiberg went with Michael Carter-Williams, Denzel Valentine, Paul Zipser, Bobby Portis and Joffrey Lauvergne in the second, and the wheels fell off. It took 5:24 for the Bulls to notch their first tally ofthe quarter. Eight minutes in, the Bulls had shot 1-for-11 from the field with six turnovers. A late surge to end the half would still have them trailing the Knicks 54-40 at the intermission.
As you can probably imagine, the Bulls never recovered from this. Carmelo Anthony killed Nikola Mirotic at one point to give the Knicks a 21-point lead in the third, which proved to be the crescendo for them as Jeff Hornacek’s crew eased off the gas peddle for the rest of the night.
The Bulls provided a late comeback in the fourth, as they did in the second, but it was far too late to matter. A likely-tanking Knicks team missing three of its’ top producers defeated a seventh-seeded Bulls team 100–91 in what can be chalked up as another uninspired, embarrassing loss in a long line of them in the 2016/17 NBA season.
With the loss, the Bulls and Indiana Pacers are knotted up in the standings, and the Miami Heat are a half-game behind both. The Bulls, now 38–40 with four games to play, will head to Philadelphia to play the 76ers who, you may recall, defeated the Bulls in similar fashion two weeks ago.
Tip-off is scheduled for 6 PM CT on Thursday night.
