INVISI-BULLS
Knick stars disappear late in crushing loss to Chicago
Julius Randle can’t complain about foul calls if he misses the most important free throws.
And the Knicks can’t continue to blame the officiating if they give up 69 points in the first half.
On Thursday night at the Garden, New York’s players were clearly frustrated by a decision early to eject Taj Gibson, who demonstrably complained about his offensive foul and was sent to the locker room after just three minutes.
The Knicks quickly fell into a 21-point hole, recovered with a flurry in the third quarter, but collapsed down the stretch and lost to the Bulls, 119-115.
“We started slowly I thought. There was frustration,” Tom Thibodeau said. “So it’s hard to play when you’re frustrated. So we can’t get wrapped up in that. Sometimes there’s tough calls that go against you and that’s just the way it is. That’s part of the league.”
Still, the Knicks (11-11) were leading with three minutes remaining. They came alive after the break – resuscitated after a heated exchange between Randle and Evan Fournier about a rebounding miscue – and had Chicago (15-8) on the ropes.
But then Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan took over in the clutch, and Randle wilted with two missed free throws and a turnover in the final two minutes.
The biggest play was Chicago’s Alex Caruso stripping Randle’s dribble in a tie game with 56 seconds left, sending LaVine to the other end for two points and permanently shifting the momentum to the visitors.
Randle finished with 30 points and 12 rebounds but also committed seven turnovers and missed three of his five foul shots. Thibodeau tried to soothe his star’s frustration.
“He’s sometimes his harshest critic, so I just wanna make sure — he did a lot of great things to put us in that position,” said Thibodeau, whose team fell to .500 for the first time since the season started. “We all have a lot of confidence in him. Sometimes, it doesn’t work out. Go on, move onto the next play, get ready to get it done the next time. That’s all.”
Two nights earlier, following a loss to Brooklyn, the Knicks were highly critical of the officiating, with Randle stating the refs were biased against the power forward because he’s stronger than the defenders and not affected by contact. He was vindicated a bit by the league’s 2-minute report the following day, which determined the referees flubbed two late calls that would’ve benefitted the Knicks.
But Knicks vs. the officials only continued at MSG on Thursday night. With New York already down RJ Barrett (illness) and Nerlens Noel (sore knee), Gibson was tossed in his first game in three weeks. The veteran stormed off the court.
And at the end of the first half, with the
Knicks trailing by 18, Fournier and Randle argued near the baseline.
“It was a disagreement over the last defensive play about the double and the rebounding,” Fournier said. “But it was just frustration. But I think the key was it was communicating. I would rather have that than not saying anything and hold grudges and stuff. So, stuff like that happens all the time and I’m glad it happened, because we played much better in that third quarter.”
Fournier responded with a monster third quarter, but went scoreless in the final period. DeRozan, LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, meanwhile, combined for 30 points in the fourth quarter. They 88 points together throughout the game.
THIBODEAU NOT FINED
Tom Thibodeau avoided a fine for criticizing the referees and wasn’t going to gloat after the NBA determined the Knicks were indeed on the wrong end of bad calls.
The league released its findings in a two-minute report, which relitigated every call in the final two minutes of New York’s loss to the Nets on Tuesday.
“You’ve got to move on. Hey look, no one’s perfect. It’s both good and bad to see that report from the NBA,” Thibodeau said. “I think that was Adam Silver’s idea in terms of transparency which is good. Everyone is going to make mistakes. Mistakes happen.”
Thibodeau also didn’t harp on Julius Randle’s claim that he’s being unfairly officiated because he’s too strong.