There\u2019s nothing like facing a couple of also-rans to get a team back on track.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a concerning three-game losing streak, the Knicks got the perfect tonic the past two games. They beat up on the Bulls with a 136-96 rout Friday night at Madison Square Garden. <\/p>\n
The win clinched the Knicks\u2019 third straight 50-win season \u2014 the first time they\u2019ve done that since they had four straight from 1991-95 and the third time they\u2019ve done that in franchise history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amid so much discourse over slow starts, the Knicks dominated from the opening tip. They stormed out to a 20-1 lead and led by 22 after the first quarter. They shot a stellar 58.3 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from 3-point range in that first quarter as the Bulls bricked on the other end.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guard Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks drives down court as forward Isaac Okoro of the Chicago Bulls defends during the first half at Madison Square Garden on Friday, April 3, 2026. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
By 7:41 left in the second quarter, the lead was up to 28. By halftime, it was up to 37 \u2014 their largest halftime lead in franchise history. It looked like the drills in practices where players go up against assistant coaches. Even that might be generous. <\/p>\n
The disinterested Bulls were content to jack up low-quality shots, offer minimal resistance on defense and get out of town with another loss as they play out the string of their failed season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to lock in and be ready to go from the jump is key,\u201d Jalen Brunson said. \u201cIt starts with our preparation. I think there\u2019s still things we can do better defensively. Obviously, getting out to a lead helped us play comfortably for the rest of the game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mitchell Robinson, starting in place of the injured Karl-Anthony Towns (right elbow impingement), helped spark the Knicks\u2019 overpowering start with 10 points, five rebounds and two steals in the first quarter. <\/p>\n
He finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and two steals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A balanced scoring attack, which had too often been missing in recent weeks, was led by OG Anunoby with 31 points \u2014 his second straight big-scoring night. He drilled seven threes, which tied a career-high.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Center Mitchell Robinson of the New York Knicks puts up a shot during the first half at Madison Square Garden. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
There was much better ball movement and cohesion, rather than different stars taking turns being aggressive in looking for their shot \u2014 something that had been a growing problem recently. Brunson was more of a distributor, recording 17 points and 10 assists. Mikal Bridges added 12 points, but missed all five 3-pointers he took.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeremy Sochan surprisingly saw pretty extensive action off the bench \u2014 over Mohamed Diawara \u2014 in what was likely a tryout to stake a claim for the playoff rotation. He played 17 minutes, his most with the Knicks, and finished with seven points and eight rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Coach Mike Brown was able to pull his starters and empty the bench for the entirety of the fourth quarter. That\u2019s when Jose Alvarado notably saw his first action \u2014 he did not play the first three quarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Neither the Bulls nor the Grizzlies, whom the Knicks beat handedly on Wednesday, are true bottom-feeders, but both are well under .500 and already eliminated from the playoff and play-in picture. <\/p>\n
The Bulls in particular have been miserable for months after a surprisingly promising start to the season \u2014 since the start of February, they are 5-23.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the Knicks used the two opponents to improve the vibes around the team, at least for a few days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who we\u2019re playing, at the end of the day it\u2019s about us,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI thought the guys were really good with that. \u2026 I thought we played the right way, playing with a sense of urgency and then on top of that, sharing the basketball offensively and spacing the floor the right way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Forward OG Anunoby of the New York Knicks drives to the basket during the first half. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of fun to watch.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It comes after three straight losses to playoff teams in the Hornets, Thunder and Rockets. Josh Hart had sounded the alarm, challenging his teammates to play with more of a \u201csense of desperation\u201d and acknowledging that they were \u201cnot going in the right direction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But if there\u2019s one thing the Knicks have done recently, it\u2019s handle low-quality opposition. Since the start of March, the Knicks are now 9-0 against teams below .500. That\u2019s compared to just 3-6 against teams above .500 during that stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the Knicks will return to quality opposition when they face the surging Hawks along with the Celtics and Raptors their next three games. Atlanta and Toronto are both potential first-round opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always want your team to be playing at the highest of high cylinders,\u201d Brown said. \u201cDo I think we\u2019re there right now? No. Do I have belief in this team? Yes I do. I\u2019ve seen us play really good basketball throughout the course of the year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friday was much closer to that standard. Now back to the real tests.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s nothing like facing a couple of also-rans to get a team back on track.\u00a0 After a concerning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9128,4777,1557,21,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-185217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-chicago-bulls","9":"tag-jalen-brunson","10":"tag-mitchell-robinson","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}