All I-Hart

In the second game of the OG era, another Knick again stole the show: their do-everything backup center who is finally out of the shadows.

Good morning! Nice to get a solid win against a team the Knicks were supposed to beat. A bit more stressful than it probably should have been, but who’s complaining? Let’s discuss…

Game 34: Knicks 116, Bulls 100

Don’t let the final score fool you…this one was a battle.

In a New York minute…

New York came out humming on both ends, but was also careless with the rock, ultimately committing 13 turnovers in the first half alone. That, plus the Bulls getting hot from deep and the inability of the Knicks’ backup unit to generate sufficient offense had Chicago up 10 late in the second and ahead by four at the half. New York put together a strong two-way third quarter and took an eight-point lead into the fourth, but more offensive struggles by the Knicks’ bench resulted in a one-point game with nine minutes remaining. From there though, a super-sized lineup dominated on the defensive end and closed the game on a 26-11 run.

Three Things

1. The starters are clicking. One look at the plus/minus column from the box score told you all you needed to know about this game:

With the exception of Randle, who played with the all-bench lineups, and DiVincenzo, who only saw 25 minutes of action, every starter was above a plus-30.

The fit at both ends has been seamless. OG Anunoby again took the top defensive assignment (DeMar DeRozan, who did a lot of damage like Anthony Edwards in the last game, but with very little of it coming against OG). Everyone else slotted into a more appropriate role.

On offense, the effort to move the ball stood out the most, both for better (29 assists on 46 made field goals) and for worse (16 turnovers, but only three in the second half when they scored 65 points). On the whole, there’s a great verve with the starting unit that seems like it can only get better with more time and chemistry.

However…