The New York Knicks prepared for their challenging schedule following the All-Star Break in about the only way a blue-collar team could do so: By playing their longest game of the season.
The Knicks will begin their playoff push Thursday night, when they host the Chicago Bulls as both teams return from the All-Star Break.
It will be the first game for the Knicks and Bulls since Feb. 12, when host New York outlasted the Atlanta Hawks 149-148 in overtime and the Bulls fell to the visiting Detroit Pistons 128-110.
The win improved the Knicks to 36-18 — their best winning percentage (.667) at the All-Star break since 1996-97. But it was a surprisingly hard-earned victory for New York, which raced out to an 18-point second-quarter lead and led by six points with 10 seconds left in regulation before the Hawks forced overtime.
The Hawks, who never led in regulation, opened a five-point lead in the extra session before Jalen Brunson’s fallaway from the foul line gave the Knicks a 149-148 lead with 11 seconds left. Atlanta then missed two potential go-ahead or game-winning shots, including a wide-open 3-pointer by Georges Niang from in front of the New York bench as time expired in a game that lasted two hours and 54 minutes.
“Obviously, we didn’t play as well as we would like,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said following the win. “But I love the resolve to have the things that happened at the end of the game, to go into overtime and just find a way to win. And that’s what this team has done all year.”
The grittiness displayed by the Knicks will likely come in handy down the stretch, when New York — the third-place team in the Eastern Conference — is slated to play 19 of its final 28 games against squads that reached the All-Star break among the top 10 in their conference.
The top six teams in each conference are guaranteed a playoff spot while the seventh- through 10th-place teams qualify for the play-in tournament to determine the final two berths in each conference.
The challenging stretch begins in earnest Friday, when the Knicks begin a two-game road trip against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics — the two teams ahead of them in the East.
The challenges will be different for the Bulls, who reached the All-Star break in 10th place in the East and 1 1/2 games ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets. Chicago has won a game in the play-in tournament in each of the last two seasons.
But contending for another spot in the play-in tournament may be difficult for the Bulls, who traded leading scorer Zach LaVine to the Sacramento Kings in a three-way blockbuster with the San Antonio Spurs on Feb. 3 that netted Chicago the Spurs’ first-round pick this summer as well as reserves Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter and Tre Jones.
The Bulls won their first game following the trade but entered the All-Star break with four straight losses in which their average margin of defeat was 24.5 points.
“When we come back, we have to look ourselves in the mirror and ask what can we do better?” said Bulls guard Coby White, who is averaging 18.2 points per game. “How can we come with a different mindset?”
–Field Level Media
