Every New York starter played at least 40 minutes Friday night as the Knicks battled the host Oklahoma City Thunder.
New York lost 117-107 to end its winning streak at nine games, so the Knicks must recharge and regroup quickly.
A visit to the Chicago Bulls awaits on Saturday night.
Can New York get a boost from the bench? Any improvement would be welcome after the Thunder’s reserves outscored their Knicks’ counterparts 44-5.
“You gotta read the game,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We had an eight-point lead going into the fourth. Intensity of the fourth’s different. We gotta be ready for that. We fell short. … Our bench is more than capable. … We win together, we lose together.”
Each Knicks starter scored in double figures against Oklahoma City, which pushed its winning streak to 14 games. Mikal Bridges led the Knicks with 24 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns had a double-double of 17 points and 22 rebounds.
New York was outscored 37-19 in the fourth quarter.
“A couple big plays … didn’t go our way,” the Knicks’ Josh Hart said.
Chicago, meanwhile, will pivot from facing an organization fighting to stay out of the NBA cellar to hosting one of the league’s hottest teams over the past month.
Aiming for their second three-game winning streak in three weeks, the Bulls sputtered in their most recent game, at Washington on Wednesday night. The Wizards overcame a game-high 32 points from Chicago’s Zach LaVine to net only their sixth victory of the season, winning 125-107.
“We’ve shown we can compete with anybody on any night, but we’ve also shown anybody can beat us on any night,” the Bulls’ Josh Giddey said. “We’ve got to be more consistent.”
Chicago had 20 turnovers and shot just 29.8 percent from long range against the Wizards. To Bulls coach Billy Donovan, the issue with reliability relates to struggles with both execution and preparation.
“We quite honestly had no right or didn’t even have the right to win, in my opinion,” Donovan said. “In terms of a coaching perspective, from a playing perspective, we did not play to a level or to an identity that we’ve tried to do. That was the discouraging part because I felt like we weren’t making shots, and then it bled into some other things.”
Chicago can secure the three-game season series against New York with a victory on Saturday. The Bulls edged the visiting Knicks 124-123 on Nov. 13 as Coby White swished three free throws with three seconds left to give Chicago the victory.
Towns posted a double-double of 46 points and 10 rebounds to lead New York, and Zach LaVine paced Chicago with 31 points and eight assists.
The Bulls lead the all-time series 129-118, but the Knicks have won six of the past 10 meetings.
LaVine has averaged 23 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 20 career games against the Knicks, and Nikola Vucevic has five double-doubles in his past 10 games vs. them.
Towns has at least 30 points in three of his past four games overall.
–Field Level Media
