Karl-Anthony Towns has 32 points and 18 rebounds as shorthanded Knicks escape feisty Bulls in overtime
Karl-Anthony Towns of the Knicks reacts after a basket in overtime against the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
If there is one thing we learned more than offensive or defensive schemes through the first 970 games of Tom Thibodeau’s head-coaching career, it is that he doesn’t take a night off, never giving up a game, no matter the circumstance.
He certainly wasn’t about to wave the white flag in game No. 971 on Thursday night when the Knicks hosted the Chicago Bulls, even as he trotted out a starting lineup without Josh Hart and OG Anunoby. For Thibodeau and the Knicks, it was another night of next man up.
So if it was going to take a sensational defensive play by Mikal Bridges to keep the Knicks alive, an extra five minutes of overtime and an exhausting effort by the available bodies with a crucial game less than 24 hours away in Cleveland, so be it.
The Knicks did have their two All-Stars, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, along with just enough help. And on this night, that would be enough — just barely — as they escaped with a 113-111 win.
Bridges sent the game to overtime by coming up with a key stop at the buzzer. Isolated in the post against 6-10 Nikola Vucevic with the clock ticking toward zero, he rose up and blocked a jump hook from point-blank range. Given a reprieve, the Knicks charged ahead in overtime and hung on.
“At first, everyone’s like, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Brunson said of seeing Bridges alone in the post. “But he makes the play and I’m like, ‘Oh, good.’ Just very thankful for his long [expletive] arms.”
“I don’t doubt Mikal Bridges against anybody in the NBA,” Towns said. “I know that if he’s defending them, it’s gonna be a tough night. So shout-out to him doing what he does best. He had the biggest play of the game.”
In a sluggish return from the break, it figured that it would take defense to get the job done, and Bridges supplied a big play.
“I even talked to [Vucevic] right before overtime,” Bridges said. “He kind of bailed me out using his right hand. If he used his left, he might have had a better look. Yeah, that’s probably the only other way he could have went, angled him that way, just trying to make a play.”
Towns finished with 32 points and 18 rebounds. Deuce McBride, inserted into the starting lineup with Hart out, had 23 points, three steals and three blocked shots. Brunson had 22 points and 12 assists. Precious Achiuwa, the other addition to the lineup, had 11 points and nine rebounds.
But it was the defense, first from Bridges to get them to overtime and then in the extra session, that carried the Knicks. After Josh Giddey’s jumper started the period, the Knicks held Chicago scoreless for the next 3:05 and ran off nine straight points.
And when the lead was down to two, it was a defensive lineup of Bridges, McBride, Achiuwa, Landry Shamet and little-used Delon Wright on the floor — and Shamet defending Vucevic this time as he air-balled a jumper as time expired.
“Just trying to win,” Bridges said. “The biggest thing, it starts on the defensive end. Just guys helping each other out, trying to make winning plays.”
“Just play together,” Brunson said. “Slow start, but we found a way, found a way to win. I’m just happy the way we played, the way we fought through regardless of what was happening.”
Towns, who had put up back-to-back 40-point efforts before the break, seemed to have left his shot in San Francisco, missing 13 of 15 attempts in the first half. But as usual, by the time the game was over, he had put up numbers, shooting 12-for-15 after halftime.
Towns hit his first eight shots in the third quarter and finished the period 9-for-10 with 20 points. He was scoreless and attempted only one shot in the fourth quarter but shot 3-for-4 in overtime. Brunson had two points in the second half before tying the score with a jumper in the final 30 seconds.
The Knicks led by as many as 10 in the third quarter and were up seven early in the fourth but struggled to keep the Bulls at bay. Giddey tied the score at 92 with 7:19 to play, draining a three-pointer, and Chicago went up two before Bridges hit a three-pointer to get the lead back. McBride followed with a jumper for a three-point lead, but Giddey tied it again with 4:36 remaining, and it was back and forth from there.
Lonzo Ball misfired on a three-pointer with 6.1 seconds left, but Vucevic batted the ball back to Coby White and Bridges deflected the ball out of bounds with two seconds left.
The injuries still might be more troubling than the performance. The Knicks were hoping to return from the break healthy for the first time all season and instead found themselves without two starters for the first time.
There was no hint of status moving forward for Hart or Anunoby, both of whom Thibodeau described as day-to-day. He provided even less insight into the potential return of Mitchell Robinson, who practiced in full Tuesday and Wednesday. Hart sat out Wednesday’s session with patellofemoral syndrome in his right knee, also known as runner’s knee.
“You trust the medical people, the player,” Thibodeau said. “So when they’re ready to go, they go, and if they’re not ready to go, they don’t go. And then the next guy gets in there.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
