A mistake-filled game the team has to 'move on' from: 3 takeaways from the Chicago Bulls' loss to the Knicks

CHICAGO, Ill. - Mistakes built up quickly for the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night. The New York Knicks took advantage.

On fast breaks, defense and offense, the Bulls struggled to get out of their own way. Jalen Brunson, who scored a game-high 45 points, buried the Bulls with a barrage of threes, free throws and assists.

Here are three takeaways from the Bulls’ 128-117 loss to the Knicks.

In a must-win game, the Bulls struggle with mental errors

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has his team sitting in the No. 3 seed behind Boston and Milwaukee after Tuesday’s win. He won plenty with the Bulls. He knows what it takes to be successful.

"The intensity of the last 10 games this season, you have to understand it's different than the first 70, so there's almost a playoff intensity to this," Thibodeau said before the game. "Everyone's playing for something, and not to get lost and stay focused on the task at hand, which is to win the game."

The Bulls are indeed playing for something, a home game in the NBA Play-In Tournament next week. That focus wasn’t evident early on.

In the second quarter, Torrey Craig swiped a steal and got on a fast break. He threw the ball off the backboard for a slam, but Andre Drummond thought it was for him and tried to dunk it too. 

That turned into a missed dunk. To add injury to insult, Drummond went down on the other end after turning his ankle. He needed a wheelchair to leave the court and was ruled out later in the second quarter.

It was the play that will circulate social media. There were plenty of other plays the Bulls could have made which won’t be discussed as widely.

The Bulls consistently cut the lead down to four and five in different situations, but mistakes allowed  the Knicks to push back ahead by eight or double digits.

Some mistakes were avoidable, like Craig’s misshaped alley-oop or his technical foul later in the game for arguing a foul. It was also thanks to Brunson, Anunoby or Donte DiVicenzo. All three scored in double figures in the first half. 

The defense struggled to communicate at times, leaving those three open from 3-point range. The Knicks shot 47 percent from 3-point range.

"For us, a lot of it comes down to the communication piece and being better communicating and helping each other a little bit more," Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said. "We can be in situations where we need to be calling things out earlier and louder and better."

Those three also were the reason the Knicks never lost their lead, but the Bulls’ errors played a part. The Bulls had plenty of chances, but their defense couldn’t make the clutch stops they needed.

Especially Brunson. 

Brunson’s star power is undeniable in his two-game Chicago stretch as a player the Bulls need

Two games ago, Jalen Brunson had 35 against the Bulls. On Tuesday, his encore was a 45-point performance in the Knicks win.

The star point guard’s second homecoming in three games proved how far he’s come as a featured player in Thibodeau’s system. On Sunday, Brunson had 43 against the Bucks.

He finished 13 of 24 from the floor, 7 of 12 from 3-point range and 12 of 12 from the free throw line. He also had eight assists.

The Stevenson High School product had 80 points in his last two games in Chicago.

Brunson is the kind of player that transforms a franchise. He has done so with the Knicks, working magic in Thibodeau’s offensive scheme and becoming one of the best point guards in the league.

He’s also the kind of player the Bulls are lacking as they still dwell on Artūras Karnišovas’ desire to stay competitive as the 2023-2024 season comes to a close.

The Bulls message should be to ‘Move On’

The Bulls are 37-42. They are entering the final week of the regular season trying to clinch a home game against the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Play-In Tournament on April 17. The Hawks lost the Heat Tuesday.

Still, the Bulls have a message in mind. 

Both the Bulls and Hawks have three games left in the regular season. The Bulls are a game up over the Hawks.

Donovan took timeout early in the game, after the Drummond-Craig mishap and early on in the second half. In one of those timeouts, the players laid a message out for the Bulls.

"A couple of players said to me in the time out, we need to move on right now," Donovan said. "And they were right."

With games against the Pistons and Wizards next, the Bulls could win both and be in a prime position to host the Play-In game. The season finale against the Knicks in Madison Square Garden would remain.

They can’t dwell on the mistakes Tuesday. There’s no time left. There’s barely any time left, at all.

"It is too late to season to be having those type of lapses," Bulls guard Coby White said.