Morning After: Knicks 135, Bulls 105 as Brunson Drops 33 and an 84-Point Half Gets Us to .500

That is what a title-defense night is supposed to look like. The Knicks blew the doors off the Chicago Bulls 135-105 at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, improved to 4-4 (3-2 at home) with their fourth win in five after the 0-3 start, and head to Cleveland on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT on NBA TV, per the AP and ESPN's schedule. Our Game Day Preview for this one is here: https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-bulls-game-day-preview-2026-11-04.

I knew it was over before the first quarter even ended. Brunson scored 22 of our 43 first-quarter points on 8-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-5 from three, per the AP, and we led 43-21 after 12 minutes. Then we dropped another 41 in the second. That is the first time this franchise has put up 40 or more in each of the first two quarters, and the 84-52 halftime score tied the Knicks' record for most points in an opening half, matching Nov. 18, 1988, per the AP. By the time Miles McBride finished a four-point play with 3:23 left in the third, the lead was a game-high 44 at 111-67, and the Bulls never got closer than 30 the rest of the way.

Brunson, Cat and the first half that broke the Bulls

Brunson finished with 33 points on 10-of-17 from the field, 5-of-10 from three and 8-of-9 at the line, plus four assists in 28 minutes, per the NBA.com box score. That is the Brunson-era look: get downhill, punish closeouts, and dare you to leave him alone from deep. OG Anunoby added 18 on 3-of-10 shooting but went 11-of-12 at the line with five boards and three steals, and Karl-Anthony Towns was perfect from the floor — 5-of-5, including 2-of-2 from three — for 17 points and 12 rebounds. That is Cat at the five in a five-out set doing exactly what I want: space the floor, knock down the open look, and clean the glass. Bridges had seven points, four rebounds and four assists in 22 minutes next to OG, which is the wing size this team is built around.

The team numbers backed up the eye test. We shot 44-of-87 from the field (50.6 percent) and 17-of-40 from three (42.5 percent), grabbed 57 rebounds to Chicago's 34, and dished 27 assists, per the ESPN and NBA.com box scores. We scored 48 in the paint and piled up 19 fast-break points to their six. That paint-and-threes balance is the lens I watch this team through, and Wednesday we got both. Chicago, meanwhile, is 1-7 and on a six-game losing streak, and every Bulls opponent has scored at least 124 this season, per the AP. We already beat them 133-127 in Chicago on Oct. 28. This was the rematch, and it was not close.

If you want the first-half fireworks again, here's the NBA's official full-game highlights:

The depth showed up, and Knecht finally debuted

Once the starters had done the damage, the bench kept pouring it on. Dalton Knecht scored 10 points with seven rebounds in his Knicks debut, per the AP. Jordan Clarkson also had 10. Mohamed Diawara put up eight points, six boards and four assists. Andre Drummond grabbed nine rebounds in 12 minutes. James Wiseman had eight points, eight boards and three blocks in 10 minutes. McBride finished with seven, including that four-point play that stretched the lead to 44. Tyler Kolek didn't score but handed out five assists in 11 minutes. When you're up by 30-plus and the second unit is still competing like that, it feels like a real roster, not just a starting five.

Attendance was 19,812, per NBA.com. The Bulls got 14 from Tre Jones and 12 apiece from Matas Buzelis and Norman Powell, but they shot 37-of-96 (38.5 percent) and 10-of-44 from three, per the ESPN box score. You cannot give this Knicks group that many open looks and expect to hang around.

So we're back to .500, we've taken care of business against a struggling Bulls team twice already, and the next test is a Saturday night in Cleveland against a Cavaliers team that is also 4-4. That one will tell us more than Wednesday did. But I'll take the 84-point half, the Brunson heater and a night when Cat and OG both looked like the wings-and-five combo this title defense is supposed to run through. Four of five since the 0-3 hole. Keep stacking them.