Knicks Dominate in Inaugural ABC Wednesday Matchup

The Knicks and Bulls wrote another chapter in their rivalry with this nationally-televised midweek matchup.

Happy New Year! The first nationally-televised NBA games of 2024 aired Wednesday night on ABC. The network will continue to do so throughout January. This arrangement is an outgrowth of the Hollywood labor strikes. This broadcast fills the primetime block intended for The Conners, Not Dead Yet, Abbott Elementary, and Judge Steve Harvey. The Writers Guild settled their dispute in September and the Screen Actors Guild settled theirs in November, but these shows still need time to write and film episodes. So that aforementioned block won’t premiere until February 7th. Until then, we have this quirky time-filler. The first of the five schedule matchups sees two big-city rivals facing off at Madison Square Garden…

Game of Runs

The home-standing New York Knicks jumped out to a 21-13 lead midway through the first quarter. However, a Chicago Bulls utilized a 32-16 swing to hold an eight-point lead of their own, 45-37, with 5:57 left in the second. The Bulls even got their lead to 10 points, 54-44, with 2:01 left in the quarter.

From there, though, it was all Knicks. New York managed to get the game to a 57-all tie with 10:43 left in the third. They ended the quarter with the 86-78 advantage. Chicago started the fourth with an 11-4 run to get the game to within one point, 90-89, with 9:09 remaining. However, the Knicks pushed back with a game-sealing 22-6 run to make it 112-95. This 17-point lead with 2:56 left in the fourth was the Knicks’ largest of the game. New York coasted to the finish line, 116-110.

Stars & Rebounds Lead to Knicks Win

The Knicks are now 2-0 in 2024, 2-0 in the OG Anunoby Era. But it was the star duo of Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle that led New York to the home W. Randle scored a game-high 35 points, while Brunson finished with 31. It’s the first time this season they both finished with at least 30 points.

23 of Randle’s points came in the second half, 11 in the third quarter. Randle & Brunson also dropped 8 each during the 22-6 run that sealed the game. The Knicks went to their best players late in the game and they did not disappoint.

New York finished the game with a .517/.395/.818 shooting splits, but turnovers kept things close in first half. The Knicks conceded 13 turnovers, the most in half this season. This led to 16 Bulls points. They shored up that issue in the second half, only relinquishing the ball three times.

The biggest team facet in this win was their interior intensity. New York won the rebounding battle 52-39, with center Isaiah Hartenstein (starting for the injured Mitchell Robinson) being responsible for (a career-high) 20 of them. They also won big in the paint 54-36.

Bulls Look Gassed in SEGABABA Loss

The Bulls finished the evening 0-2 on their Northeast back-to-back with a combined negative-29 point differential. Coby White had a strong evening, scoring 26 points on 9-of-19 shooting, 6-of-9 from 3-point range. His night beyond the arc was a bounce-back from his previous five games, where he shot a dreadful 3-of-31 from distance.

DeMar DeRozan paced his team with 28 points on 10-of-13 shooting, 3-of-4 from 3. The kicker is that he scored 19 of those points in the first half. DeRozan came away with just nine points in the second half on 2-of-3 shooting. Former Raptor teammate OG Anunoby did a good job of hounding him on defense throughout the half.

The Bulls didn’t get much more production out of the rest of the cast. Everyone else shot 18-of-57 from the field, 4-of-19 from 3. They were particularly brutal at the rim, going 11-of-28 (.393, 26 percent below league average). A lot of missed layups. Ayo Dosunmu, in particular, missed three transition attempts.

The fastbreak also dictated Chicago’s fortunes. They won the battle in the first half 11-4, but were blitzed in the second half 10-2. DeRozan and White tried to keep the Bulls afloat, but once their legs got tired, New York dominated them in basically every facet of the game.