Chicago Bulls vs. New York Knicks: Live Score, Highlights and Reaction
Carmelo Anthony scored 24 points, Kristaps Porzingis added 19 and the New York Knicks handled the Chicago Bulls, 106-94, at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, marking their second straight win over the Bulls in as many nights and putting Chicago's playoff hopes in jeopardy.
The Knicks beat the Bulls, 115-107, at the United Center on Wednesday, dropping Chicago out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Now, the Bulls are 1.5 games behind the eighth-seeded Detroit Pistons after Thursday evening's defeat.
Chicago never really looked into this one from the get-go.
New York took a 31-27 lead after the first quarter, with Sasha Vujacic lighting it up with three three-pointers over the first 12 minutes.
By halftime, the Knicks were up 53-45, and the Bulls simply looked apathetic.
New York continued to stretch its lead in the second half, fending off a couple of short Chicago spurts and eventually going up by as many as 17 late in the fourth quarter.
Two alley-oop connections from Jose Calderon and Derrick Williams put the exclamation point on the win for the Knicks.
Derrick Rose was brilliant, leading the Bulls with 30 points off 13-of-23 shooting. He also threw down his first dunk of the season.
Outside of Rose, however, Chicago was starved for offense.
Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson were the only other two Bulls players to score in double figures, with 19 and 10 points, respectively.
Chicago shot just 41.6 percent from the floor.
Next up for the Bulls is a road meeting with the Orlando Magic on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, the Knicks will host the Cleveland Cavaliers that same evening.
