Written by Kenny Ducey at SI.com
After yet another flash of brilliance to begin the season—complete with Ron Baker three-point telescopes and Kristaps Porzingis one-legged fadeaways—the Knicks had once again plummeted into the darkness. A run of eight losses in nine games, culminating in a week bookended by the literal disappearance of their starting point guard and a loss at the buzzer in Philadelphia—a game in which the team had held a 10-point lead with under five minutes to play.
“You let a guy like T—what’s his name, TJ McConnell? Come down and end you? You’ve got to put yourself in a position where you can’t let that kill you,” Knicks forward Kyle O’Quinnsaid. “And he killed us last night. That hurt us big time. Tonight, I think everybody felt that.”
In Thursday’s 104-89 win over the Bulls, less than 24 hours after McConnell’s game-winner, the Knicks realized the best way to cease questions about dysfunction was to change the conversation. And the same point guard who broadcasted the Knicks’ turmoil for the entire nation wound up being the one to lead them out, against his former team no less.
Derrick Rose ignited the crowd from the very beginning, scoring 15 of his 17 points in the first half with the jumper and on the drive. He brought the arena to its loudest in the closing seconds of the second quarter, calling his own number and scoring an and-one basket aroundRajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade on a dive to the rim. After a few days on shaky ground, Rose played comfortably and confidently.
“We were desperate to win,” Rose said.
The indigestion from a loss to the Sixers combined with the Rose-Noah revenge narrative was enough to push the Knicks to perform on Thursday, but it’s not entirely clear where the team stands now.
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