Earning their first victory of the season on Tuesday hardly inspired a frenzy among the defending NBA champion New York Knicks.
The 111-97 home win against the Detroit Pistons provided the Knicks with momentum, however, as they prepare to visit the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night to conclude a back-to-back set.
“I think, most importantly, we’ve got to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day; this is a new year, new team,” Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson said. “Adversity started early, so we’ve just got to fight back.”
Brunson scored 23 points to help the Knicks beat the Pistons, while Karl-Anthony Towns notched a double-double of 27 points and 20 rebounds.
The Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic to begin the season. New York avoided joining the 1969-70 Celtics as the lone reigning champions to start a title defense with four straight defeats.
New York also saw positives from Mikal Bridges, who connected on 4-of-8 attempts from 3-point range after going 0-for-10 in the first three games. Bridges finished with 12 points on Tuesday after totaling just 10 through the first three games.
“We have a long way to go, but obviously we want to learn from wins as much as we do from losses,” Brunson said, “so I’m just happy we came out with the win today.”
Chicago has lost three of four games to open the season, including two defeats by at least 35 points.
The Bulls will return home after falling 134-99 at Boston on Monday, when they committed 25 turnovers, trailed by as many as 40 points and never led.
Norman Powell (20 points) and Caleb Wilson (17) led four players in double figures in scoring, but the team struggled to find a rhythm while finishing minus-14 on the glass.
Building consistency remains the focus for the Bulls, who knew they were in for a rebuild under first-year coach Tiago Splitter.
“Every team coming out of training camp feels good about themselves,” Chicago’s Josh Giddey said. “Every team probably says that you know they’re better than people think they’re going to be, and blah, blah, blah. I believe in the group that we have in putting it together. And we look good in stretches, and we look horrible in stretches.
“It’s a matter of just making those good stretches longer and the bad stretches shorter. So we’ve got to figure it out as a group. It’s not on one person; it’s everybody. We’re not doing enough, and that’s why we lost by [35] tonight.”
The Bulls struggled to a 12-for-44 showing from long range against the Celtics and are shooting just 23.8% from deep this season, last in the NBA.
New York has won three straight games against Chicago and six of the past 10.
Giddey has four career triple-doubles vs. the Knicks, his most against any team.
