CHICAGO — They fought. They battled. In the end, all it got the Knicks Monday night was another loss and a tie for eighth place in the East as their free fall continued in the Windy City.
So why did Mike D'Antoni call the Knicks' 104-99 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bulls "encouraging?" Because they had quit, at times, on themselves and their embattled coach during this losing streak, which stands now at six games. Here, at least, they didn't throw in the towel at the first sign of trouble against the top team in the East and the league's reigning MVP.
NO BULL: KNICKS LOSING STREAK REACHES SIX
It's a small consolation, we know. When you've talked big about contending for a title, as the Knicks did when this season started, playing hard and staying with the Bulls until the final two minutes isn't any reason to cheer. But this team played the last few games as if it was looking forward to a coaching change.
Even if he might have put off all the firing talk for at least another day or two, D'Antoni did not leave here satisfied. How could he? His team now is locked into a fight for the final playoff berth in the East with Milwaukee and he's going to be right back on shaky ground if the Knicks revert back to the team that didn't show a lot of fight against the Sixers at the Garden on Sunday.
KNICKS ARE LOSING, BUT FAR FROM BORING
"We played hard for long stretches," D'Antoni said.
But they didn't play well in the biggest junctures of the game, as Derrick Rose and the Bulls' rebounders took over in the final minutes and showed the Knicks how to win a game at the end.
"Eighth place," D'Antoni said. "You have to be disappointed and we know that."
The Knicks say they're tired of all this losing and they finally played a game where it looked as if they wanted to win. Their offense, a mess since Carmelo Anthony returned from an injury nine games ago, had some very productive stretches.
Anthony seemed to fit in and didn't try to dominate the ball, but still needed 21 shots to score 21 points. Amar'e Stoudemire emerged from whatever funk he's been in to go for 20 points. Jeremy Lin, in his first encounter with Rose, did not shoot too much and committed only three turnovers in 32 minutes.
But they couldn't contain Rose in the fourth quarter and Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler couldn't get a big defensive board, and nobody could get a loose ball when it counted, and that helped the Bulls get 24 second-chance points. So they've now lost eight of their last 11 games and it's time to get serious.
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