Bulls vs. Knicks: Score, Highlights, Reaction from 2017 Regular Season

The New York Knicks finally got back into the win column with a 104-89 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak as New York improved to 18-22 on the season. The Bulls, who never led in the second half, fell to 19-21.

Both teams came into the game short-handed. The Knicks announced Kristaps Porzingis was out with a sore Achilles, while the Bulls were forced to play without Jimmy Butler, Nikola Mirotic and Denzel Valentine because of an illness, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.

TNT's Charles Barkley joked about the impact of the missing players, as Chris Herring of FiveThirtyEight relayed:

Still, the game went on as scheduled, and New York came through with one of its best efforts of the season.

Derrick Rose scored 17 points against his former team in his first home game since disappearing to Chicago.

Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News noted the improvement:

Rose had been struggling this season but recorded 25 points in his return to the court Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Carmelo Anthony had a solid showing with 23 points, nine rebounds and a team-high six assists. The Knicks also had a plus-22 point differential when he was on the court Thursday.

This all came after the team heard boos early in the game:

Joakim Noah and Kyle O'Quinn both came through with double-doubles, while Mindaugas Kuzminskas scored a career-high 19 points.

Dwyane Wade was again the best player on the floor for the Bulls, finishing with 22 points, three assists and two steals. Unfortunately, he didn't find much help, with the team shooting just 40.2 percent from the field and 3-of-18 from three-point range.

Former Knicks guard Jerian Grant had 14 points, but it was otherwise a rough night for Chicago's offense.

New York came into the game needing a win, and Rose did his part as the team jumped out to an early lead. The home team scored the first eight points of the game and built a 22-14 advantage.

This Rose layup showed some of the skills Bulls fans had seen before, courtesy of NBA on TNT:

Chicago fought back, though, cutting the deficit to 24-22 by the end of the first quarter.

The game stayed competitive in the second quarter, even if the level of play wasn't always topnotch.

Jeff Mangurten of WLS-AM 890 broke down some of the struggles:

Even with the mistakes, the two sides battled back and forth, leading to a 54-51 Knicks lead going into halftime. New York's stars played a big role in the advantage, with Rose and Anthony combining for 29 points in the first half.

As a team, the Knicks made 53.7 percent of their shots going into intermission.

Rajon Rondo helped Chicago remain within striking distance with a buzzer-beater, as NBA on TNT shared:

The third quarter was uglier for the Bulls, who scored just 14 points in the 12 minutes while shooting 5-of-21 from the field.

Johnson discussed the problems:

The poor effort helped the Knicks pull ahead with a 76-65 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Wade was the only player who showed any life for Chicago, which shared a replay of his throwback dunk:

New York built a 15-point lead, but there was some nervousness at Madison Square Garden a day after the team's massive collapse against the 76ers.

This time, however, the Bulls didn't have enough offense to come back and ended up losing by 15 points.

Despite ending their three-game losing streak, the Knicks have still lost nine of their last 11 games and have a long way to go to get back into contention in the Eastern Conference. They will try to build off Thursday's victory when they take the floor against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre on Sunday.

Chicago has lost three games in a row and dropped to two games under .500, matching its lowest mark of the season. The team will hope to get back on track with a home matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday.

Postgame Reaction

After the recent struggles, this win was big for the Knicks. Rose discussed the importance after the game, per Michelle Yu of SNY:

The victory especially mattered after Wednesday night's loss to Philadelphia, arguably the low point of the season for New York. Head coach Jeff Hornacek was proud of the effort on display.

"After last night's loss, I thought they came back with a good fight for the game," the coach said, per the team's Twitter account. "They battled."

"I think the team had the right mindset tonight," Joakim Noah added. "We fought hard."

The Knicks now need to show this game wasn't a fluke by building off it the next time out.

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter.