Game Preview: Knicks vs Bulls- 12/23/22

The Knicks will look to bounce back as the Chicago Bulls are in town for the third and final meeting of the regular season between these two franchises. New York is looking to get back in the win column after a gut-wrenching defeat against the Raptors on Wednesday.

This is the third meeting between these two in less than two weeks and with the Knicks already winning the season series against the Bulls, they will be looking for the season sweep at the Garden.

Since the Knicks swept back-to-back games in Chicago, the Bulls have been able to slightly recover with big wins over the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks on the road. They will be looking to do exactly what the Knicks did for most of this month and climb out of the hole that they dug for themselves in the early months of the season.

Nikola Vucevic had 29 points to lead the Bulls to victory in Miami while Chicago native Ayo Dosunmu’s tip in at the buzzer stunned the Hawks in Atlanta on Wednesday.

New York saw Pascal Siakam drop 52 points in a seven-point loss last time out and will look to quickly get back on track. It will be interesting to see if this recent winning run will be a turning point in the season or if the Knicks will revert back to inconsistent play.

On the injury front. Quentin Grimes is day-to-day with a right ankle sprain and it would be massive if he can recover soon as he has provided vital minutes during the eight-game winning streak.

For the Bulls, the injury list has much more length to it. Lonzo Ball, Javonte Green and Derrick Jones Jr. are all out for the game while Alex Caruso and Goran Dragic are day-to-day.

As mentioned earlier, the Knicks won two games in three days in the Windy City back on Dec. 14 and 16. The first was an overtime nail-biter that saw Grimes and Jalen Brunson scorch the Bulls in the extra session in route to an eight-point win. That was followed by a 23-point blow out in the second meeting led by 27 points from R.J. Barrett.

Prediction

The Knicks have already won the season series over the Bulls, but to sweep them would a send a big statement to the rest of the eastern conference. This is a game to show that New York has really turned a corner and a win sets up a juicy Christmas Day showdown with the Sixers at MSG with a chance to potentially catch Philadelphia in the conference standings. I think the Knicks beat the Bulls and send the holly and jolly New York fans into the Christmas Day games feeling good about their team.

Keep it here for all the coverage as always and Happy Holidays everyone!