It was always going to end.
The Chicago Bulls ran out of steam Sunday for their first loss of the season, a 128-113 blowout against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Guard Josh Giddey racked up his first triple-double of the season — 23 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists — but even that performance couldn’t outweigh an offensive onslaught from the Knicks. It was Giddey’s eighth triple-double as a Bull, third in franchise history behind Michael Jordan (28) and Scottie Pippen (15).
The San Antonio Spurs (5-1) also lost Sunday, leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder (7-0) as the only remaining unbeaten team. Despite the loss, the Bulls (5-1) are tied atop the Eastern Conference standings with the Philadelphia 76ers (5-1).
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Reverting to the mean.
Throughout their unbeaten streak, the Bulls benefited from their opponents’ poor 3-point shooting — a 30.1% clip that was the lowest opponents percentage in the league.
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Does this mean the Bulls have the league’s best 3-point defense? It’s hard to tell. That five-game span also saw opponents take the second-fewest defended attempts behind the arc, which means opposing shooters were missing a larger percentage of wide-open attempts. But the Bulls also have credited their breathless tempo for tiring out opponents, which contributes to poor overall shooting (47%).
Either way, things changed at the perimeter Sunday. The Knicks shot 47.6% on 3s, making 20 — and they shot better from 3-point range than inside the arc (43.4%). The game started with a torrential downpour from deep as the Knicks went 13 of 21 (61.9%) in the first half.
The Bulls attempted to answer by shooting 42.5% behind the arc to tally 17 3-pointers, but that wasn’t enough to eclipse the Knicks’ best 3-point shooting night of the season.
2. It was a sloppy affair.
The Bulls were short-handed and out of sorts only two days after a statement win over the Knicks in the group stage of the NBA Cup.
Despite outscoring the Knicks in the paint, the Bulls couldn’t force their way to the free-throw line, where they were outshot 22-9. Karl-Anthony Towns went 8-for-8 and Jalen Brunson 7-for-7 from the penalty stripe as the Knicks bullied the Bulls with their trademark style of gritty offense.
And the Bulls struggled to control the ball, giving up 16 points off 14 turnovers. OG Anunoby bowled over Tre Jones in the third quarter to force an easy give-up at midcourt. Nikola Vučević allowed a smaller guard to pick his pocket during an attempted post-up on two separate plays. Giddey led the team with four turnovers.
3. The Bulls missed Ayo Dosunmu.
A player’s impact is often best measured in his absence — and the Bulls certainly saw the importance of Dosunmu during Sunday’s loss, which the guard missed after suffering a bruised quadriceps in Friday’s win over the Knicks.
Dosunmu averaged 16.2 points, three rebounds and 3.2 assists in 26.2 minutes per game off the bench through the first five games. He averaged two of the team’s 13.6 3-pointers per game. And he consistently came through in the clutch, knocking down three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter of an Oct. 25 win over the Orlando Magic.
The Bulls on Sunday shifted Dosunmu’s bench minutes almost entirely to Patrick Williams and Kevin Huerter, who combined for only 18 points. Williams had two steals and Huerter two blocks, but neither was able to provide the defensive momentum necessary to slow the Knicks at the perimeter.