Just a day after blowing a 35 point lead, the Bulls attempted a daring comeback of their own, whittling a once 22 point Knicks lead down to one point with 1:41 remaining in the game.
The Bulls comeback, unlike the Kings, came up short, and the Bulls lost the game 88-81.
The Bulls had their opportunities down the stretch, but once again failed to come up in clutch situations.
First, with the Bulls down three, Kirk Hinrich ignored the inbound play called by Vinny Del Negro, instead attempting an idiotic alleyoop to Joakim Noah, but the Bulls got the ball back.
Derrick Rose then bounced a pass that was meant for Taj Gibson out of bounds. It was a good idea for the Bulls to get a score, as Taj Gibson was standing there wide open. The problem of course is that Gibson is a string bean who can’t hold position in the post, which forced Rose to do a bounce pass (which Gibson wasn’t able to catch for whatever reason) instead of a regular pass for the easy dunk.
Even then, I don’t like the idea of passing it into Gibson at that point in the game. At that point, the Bulls were down by 3 points with 29.8 seconds left. The score would have been quick, and would have allowed the Bulls to go for the stop, and try to get the win with a one point game instead of playing the foul game, but the Bulls still would have had to score once more, likely with only a few seconds left, as the Knicks probably would have burned down the clock. You have to play to tie the game in situations like this, not to put yourself down 1.
Of course early on, it didn’t look like the Bulls were even going to be in late game pressure situations, as they were getting blown out early. But Derrick Rose led a comeback, scoring 16 points in the third quarter. Rose finished the game with 26 points.
Once Rose got the comeback started, Deng helped out a bit, getting going himself. Deng finished with 23 points on the game, although he took 23 shots to do it.
The Bulls defense was fine in the second half of this game, holding New York to only 35 points. But the Bulls continue to lose because they cannot score the ball.
Everyone in this game, except Derrick Rose and Taj Gibson, had poor scoring efficiencies. When only 34 of your team’s points are coming from efficient scoring, you’re offense is going to be terrible, as the Bulls offense was last night, and you are going to lose a lot of games, as the Bulls have been doing all season long.
The game saw some big rebounding numbers from Joakim Noah and David Lee. Noah finished the game with 10 points and 21 rebounds. Noah struggled scoring the ball, going 4-13 from the field.
However, David Lee outplayed Noah, finishing with 18 points and 21 rebounds. Lee hit the shot to put the Knicks up five points with 5 seconds remaining in the game.
John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich continued their poor play. Salmons finished with 7 points on 2-9 shooting, and Hinrich finished with 5 points on 2-7 shooting.
Del Negro actually decided to bench John Salmons and Brad Miller to start the third quarter. Both players have played horribly for the entire season.
Danilo Gallinari finished the game with 11 points on 2-13 shooting, but also had 3 blocks. I think Gallinari is a guy that a 2010 free agent like Lebron might want to play next to. He seems like a good fit next to a ball dominant player because of his ability to make the three point shot.
Al Harrington gave the Knicks 20 points off the bench, and Wilson Chandler added 16 points. Jared Jefferies finished the game with 10 points.
With the loss, the Bulls fall to 10-17 on the season.
