NEW YORK – The Bulls were in pursuit of history on Sunday.
A win in the rematch against the Knicks, and this group would have been standing within reach of immortality. Only the 1996-97 Michael Jordan-led Bulls started a season off better in team history, sprinting out to a 12-0 start that year.
The chase has ended, and with a thud.
Thanks to a night in which New York shots a ridiculous 48% from three-point range (20-of-42), the Garden got to watch the home team slap the Bulls (5-1) from the unbeaten ranks, beating them 128-116
That left the Oklahoma City Thunder as the only unbeaten team left in the infant stages of this NBA season and was also a reminder to Billy Donovan’s group that they can’t take a night off from the details.
“Physicality wasn’t there,” guard Josh Giddey said of the loss. “(Sunday) they just went through our chest all night. We didn’t rebound the way we needed to; we had talked about that pregame. They shot the ball really well, and you got to find ways to win when teams are knocking down their shots like that.”
Not that Giddey didn’t try, recording his first triple-double of the season (eighth as a Bull) with 23 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, but the point guard could only do so much.
The Bulls came into the night with a league-low 30.1% allowed from three-point range by the opposing team. That included allowing only 9.2 made threes per game. The Knicks destroyed all those neat little numbers.
Donovan, however, wasn’t even upset about the shooting.
“They shot it great, so give them credit, but we shot the ball well too,” Donovan said. “I thought it was all the physicality things. Because of the offensive rebounds, because of the number of times they got to the free throw line, that kept us from running.
“Then at times I thought they went through us. They were more physical, had a presence at the basket more than we did. There were some loose ball opportunities we didn’t come down with. These are the things we have to do.”
And the signs were there early that they weren’t doing them.
Yes, the Knicks shot 6-of-10 from three in that opening stanza, but beat the Bulls at their own game, outscoring Donovan’s run-and-gun offense 9-7 in fastbreak points.
Just like that the Bulls found themselves down 10 after one, 34-24. The details Donovan has been preaching just weren’t there.
“For us, seeing the first five games, the level in which we were trying to do those things, I didn’t think we were at that level (Sunday),” Donovan said. “I don’t want to say it’s a step back because I understand that with the way we’re trying to play at both ends of the floor there is an enormous physical commitment to that.
“We didn’t do the things at the level that we needed to.”
It’s hard to throw Giddey in that grouping, considering he and Matas Buzelis were the only two starters not in the minus in plus/minus. Not that it came as a surprise, since Giddey has always played well at the garden, evident with a handful of triple-doubles on his resume in New York.
“I love it,” Giddey said of playing at the Garden. “When I was a kid growing up, the Garden was a place I wanted to play my whole life, so got to make the most of it when we’re here.”
The good news for this group was they recognized their shortcomings in the loss immediately after the game was over and seemed anxious to make sure it was fixed by Tuesday when they host Philadelphia.
“It’s another good team in Philly coming in so we’ve got to address what we need to,” Giddey added.
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Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Bulls reporter