Derrick Rose Closes Knicks’ Chaotic Week With Vintage Performance Against Bulls
NEW YORK — 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’Quinn said. “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…