Five From New York: Knicks Tame Bulls in Overtime Thriller

The New York Knicks saw a large lead blow away in the Windy City but clutch showings from their most prominent stars paved the way to another win.

The New York Knicks' big three united for an even larger five on Wednesday night.

Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson, and RJ Barrett united for 83 points in Wednesday night's road tilt against the Chicago Bulls, keying the Knicks' 128-120 victory. Though this one required overtime, the Knicks (15-13) captured their fifth win in a row, creating their longest winning streak since April 2021. 

Wednesday marked the first half of a de facto doubleheader at United Center, with latter portion set to be staged on Friday. 

Making up for his early exit in Sunday's win over Sacramento, Randle scored 31 points and hauled in 13 rebounds over 46 minutes to push New York two games over .500 for the first time since Oct. 26. Brunson's Wednesday status was in question after suffering a leg contusion in the aforementioned weekend triumph but he not only took his usual spot in the starting lineup, but he also put in 30 points and seven assists.

Barrett fouled out in the final stages of regulation but scored 22 points and hauled in six rebounds before his mandated departure. Elsewhere in the starting five, Mitchell Robinson hauled in six offensive boards (part of a 10-rebounds) night to pace the Knicks' 20-9 advantage in second chance points while Quentin Grimes hit some of the game's most important baskets, registering nine of his 14 points over the final 10 minutes of game time. 

Like their other victories in the ongoing streak, the Knicks got off to another strong start headlined by the efforts of Randle. The Knicks' leading scorer had 15 over the first dozen minutes alone which was enough to withstand Chicago's near-erasure of an early 14-4 lead. Though the Bulls whittled it down to one by the end of the opening period, the Knicks ballooned their lead to 14 by the latter stages of the second. 

Matching five-point advantages over each second half period (the fourth frame concluding with DeMar DeRozan's fastbreak equalizer created by Patrick Williams' tip of a would-be sealer from Randle) allowed Chicago to extend the game, but New York, sans Barrett, wrapped things up with an 11-3 advantage in the last five minutes. The Knicks allowed Chicago to shoot only 1-of-7 from the field in the extra session and outrebounded them 5-1 in that same span.

DeRozan paced the Bulls with 32 points, earning half of that tally from the foul line. Chicago has now dropped two in a row in overtime and each of their last four defeats has come by single digits. 

Friday's rematch (8 p.m. ET, MSG) is the middle leg of a holiday trio against the Bulls, with the final of the matchups this season slated for Dec. 23. 

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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