The New York Knicks coughed up a fourth quarter lead allowing the Chicago Bulls to escape with a 110 to 103 victory at the United Center tonight.

The Knicks led the Bulls 90 to 85 with 9:23 left in the fourth, but the Bulls started pouring in the points, at one point taking a 10 point lead with 5:16 remaining, 100 to 90.

Of course, the Bulls would let the Knicks back into the game. The Knicks got within one when Wilson Chandler sank a desperation three with 22 seconds left in the game to make it 104 to 103. But the Knicks let Ben Gordon get open, and the Knicks were forced to foul. Gordon then made both free throws to give the Bulls a 106 to 103 lead.

The Knicks needed a three in order to tie the game and bring it into overtime. They ended up with the ball in Quentin Richardson’s hands on the left wing, with Tyrus Thomas guarding him. Thomas bit, came down, but was able to block Richardson’s shot on his second jump. The Bulls cruised to victory from there on out.

Kirk Hinrich was just tremendous tonight. He finished with 25 points and 3 steals. He was making some difficult shots when the Bulls needed them, and had some big steals at the time when the Bulls were opening up the big 10 point lead.

The Bulls also got a big performance from John Salmons, who finished with 19 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 steals. He was probably the best Bull tonight. His steals, like Hinrich’s, were huge.

Ben Gordon was solid tonight, finishing with 17 points and 5 rebounds on 6-15 shooting. His shot was a little shaky tonight, his wrist injury is probably bothering his shot a little. 2 of his misses were late in the game though, after sitting almost the entire fourth quarter and being brought in for the last minute or so. He might have just missed those two shots because he was out of the game so long.

Derrick Rose finished with 18 points an 7 assists. Rose really didn’t have that good of a game today. He didn’t score the ball very efficiently and had some sloppy turnovers.

Tyrus Thomas had a pretty good game tonight finishing with 18 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 steals. I didn’t think Thomas had a good game from start to finish, but he played well for most of it, with just a few dumbfounding moments sprinkled in. He came up huge in the clutch with two big blocks.

Wilson Chandler led the Knicks in scoring with 26 points. Al Harrington had 23 points. These were the two Knicks that looked really good offensively, but that might have just been because the Bulls played smallish, and were at a matchup disadvantage against these two guys.

David Lee had 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 6 assists.

Nate Robinson had a poor night, scoring 6 points on 2-9 shooting.

I think one big reason for why the game was so close was because Brad Miller missed so many short ones. He finished with 6 points on 1-10 shooting. If Miller puts in a few more of those close ones, this isn’t as close of a game. However, Miller did grab 12 rebounds.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 38-40 on the season, and move a half game ahead of Detroit for the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference.

Closing Comments

Tonight was a win for the Bulls and that’s good enough for me. It was sloppy, but they got the job done. I don’t think it is really wise to try to draw too many conclusions from a game like this, so I won’t try to. The Knicks are one of those teams that can sloppy up a game, and that’s exactly what happened tonight.

The Bulls playoff chances are much improved after tonight. The Bobcats won, but so did the Bulls, so the Bulls magic number to make the playoffs is down to 2. That means that if the Bulls beat the Bobcats on Sunday, they will be in the playoffs.

Go Bulls!

Similar Posts:

• New York Knicks 102 vs. Chicago Bulls 98
• 2009-2010: Bulls Comeback Falls Short Against Knicks
• Chicago Bulls 105 vs. New York Knicks 100
• Chicago Bulls 103 vs. New Jersey Nets 94
• Chicago Bulls 113 vs. Charlotte Bobcats 106

Tags: Ben Gordon, Brad Miller, Chicago Bulls, David Lee, Derrick Rose, Kirk Hinrich, Nate Robinson, New York Knicks, Quentin Richardson, Tyrus Thomas, Wilson Chandler

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Game Recap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.