Game Preview: Knicks at Bulls- 12/16/22

The Knicks and Bulls meet for the second time in three days as New York looks to take the season series over Chicago in the Windy City on Friday night.

These two longtime foes meet again after an overtime thriller on Wednesday saw the Knicks take down the Bulls in overtime 128-120. The Knicks were led by tremendous performances by Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson and the youngster, Quentin Grimes.

Chicago will be even more desperate for a win than they were on Wednesday as they have lost two overtime games in a row. They have fallen in three of their last five to see them drop out of the play-in spots in the Eastern Conference.

The Knicks are flying right now and playing the best basketball they’ve played all season. New York is looking to make it a season high six straight wins. They’re also trying to win the important season series against the Bulls which could be paramount at the end of the season for playoff seeding.

At the moment, both teams are pretty healthy. Ayo Dosunmu, the former Illinois college star, is day-to-day.

Once again, the Knicks will need to contend with the usual suspects the Bulls bring to the table as DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic will look to match their strong performances from Wednesday night’s game.

The Knicks will need to match their intensity and desperation if they want to keep winning. This game is as important as any the Bulls have played all year even if we are still in the middle of December.

For New York, RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson will need to try and match their stellar performances from recent outings along with the scoring leaders of Brunson and Randle. If you add in Grimes and the positives he has brought recently, you have a starting five that could lead the Knicks a lot of success this season. It has been quite a long time since we have seen five Knicks playing this well together at the same time.

It could mean some special things are ahead, but it is the NBA and teams can be brought back down to earth very quickly. This game could tell us a lot about the Knicks from a mental standpoint.

Prediction

The Knicks need to be gritty. They need to be intense. They need to be desperate and they need to be greedy. I’m picking the Knicks to win against the Bulls again in Chicago and extend the team’s longest winning streak of the season. It is a good time in the regular season to be red hot and I think the Knicks keep it going tonight.

We will have coverage throughout the weekend as always so keep checking in on us to stay up to date on the red hot New York Knicks!