Jalen Brunson, playing through a right foot injury, scored 30 points and hit the tiebreaking free throws in overtime Wednesday night for the visiting New York Knicks, who pulled away in the extra session and beat the Chicago Bulls 128-120.
Julius Randle (31 points, 13 rebounds) posted a double-double for the Knicks, who have won five straight. RJ Barrett scored 22 points and Quentin Grimes added 14, including a key 3-pointer with 1:04 left in overtime.
DeMar DeRozan scored 32 points and went 16 of 17 from the free-throw line for the Bulls, who have lost two straight and five of seven. Zach LaVine finished with 25 points while Nikola Vucevic had 19. Coby White collected 12 points off the bench while starter Patrick Williams added 11 points.
The Knicks led by as many as 14 in the first half before the Bulls chipped away in the third and took their first lead when Vucevic hit back-to-back baskets to cap a 10-0 run and put the hosts up 77-76 with 4:16 left. Neither team led by more than five in the fourth, when there were six ties and four lead changes.
Williams blocked a layup by Randle to set up the fastbreak that ended with DeRozan hitting a layup to tie the score at 117-117 with 24.7 seconds left.
Following a timeout, Randle held the ball with Williams guarding him for 18 seconds before he dribbled into the lane and lofted a fadeaway baseline jumper that didn’t hit the rim and resulted in a shot clock violation. The Bulls called timeout to advance the ball, but Randle got a hand on Alex Caruso’s lob to Williams as time expired.
The teams traded empty trips to open overtime until Brunson and DeRozan hit baskets on consecutive possessions. After Brunson missed a fadeaway and LaVine was whistled for traveling, Brunson hit the go-ahead free throws with 3:02 left. The Bulls missed their final five field-goal attempts and the Knicks put the game away when Grimes and Brunson hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to give New York a 128-119 lead.
–Field Level Media