New York Knicks hold off Chicago Bulls
The New York Knicks waxed hot from beyond-the-arc and prevented the comeback attempt of the Chicago Bulls to escape with a 120-112 victory on Thursday 4 November at the United Center in Chicago.
Toney Douglas had an outstanding night as he scored a career-high 30 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the three-point region to go with four assists and four steals for the Knicks, who converted
16 of their 24 three-point attempts.
"I make sure that every time I shoot it that I have confidence that it's going in," said Douglas."I can miss 10 in a row. I'm going to shoot the next one and make it."
Danilo Gallinari also had a great shooting night as the 22-year old Italian forward converted all of his four attempts three-point attempts, finishing the game with 24 points and six rebounds,
while starting point guard Raymond Felton racked up 20 points and 10 assists, and was 4-for-6 from beyond-the-arc.
"We know it is not going to be like this every night, and we will have to find another way to win on those nights,'' said Gallinari on the Knicks' great shooting night after hitting only
29.1 per cent from the three-point line over their first three games.
Derrick Rose paced Chicago with his 24 points and 14 assists, while Taj Gibson scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, but New York’s terrific shooting and fluid offensive flow were simply
too much for the Bulls on the night.
"Once you start to see the ball going in from different people it makes it a lot easier for everyone else," Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni said.
Kyle Korver chipped in 18 points and Luol Deng had 17 points, while Joakim Noah racked up 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Bulls, who played without Rose, Noah, and Deng in the final 9:31
of the game after their second unit had a strong performance in the final period.
Korver, along with the Bulls’ second five, pulled within eight points, 95-87, early in the fourth period but the Knicks quickly responded with a 10-0 blast, and the fans were all chanting
to bring their key players back in the game.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau decided to stick with the group of players who chipped in to the Knicks lead, but they came up short and absorbed their second defeat of the season.
"The second unit I thought fought hard to close it, and I wanted to see what they could get out of it," Thibodeau said. "They were closing a lot harder to the three-point line. The way their
guards were shooting, I thought the energy to get out to the line was what we needed."
Deng, who had a career-high 40 points against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday 1 November, admitted that their head coach made a right decision of sticking with their second unit. "That
group that came in did a better job than us," he said.
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