Morning After: Knicks 133, Bulls 127 as Brunson Drops 38 and the Bench Erases a 19-Point Hole

Two nights, two comebacks, and now we can breathe a little. The Knicks rallied from 19 down to beat the Bulls 133-127 at the United Center on Wednesday night, Jalen Brunson scored 38, and the champs are 2-3 after that ugly 0-3 start. Next up is Philadelphia on Friday (6:30 p.m. CT on Prime Video), our first NBA Cup game of the season, per ESPN's schedule and SNY.

For about 30 minutes this looked like the loss I'd been bracing for on the second night of a back-to-back. Tre Jones banked in a half-court shot at the halftime buzzer to put Chicago up 62-56, per the AP, and then Norman Powell went nuclear in the third. By the 4:57 mark the Bulls led 87-68, per ESPN's play-by-play, and I was already drafting the angry version of this column in my head. Powell finished with 30 on 10-of-15 shooting, and the Bulls hit 18 of 42 from deep. That's a lot of open looks for a team that's supposed to have the length to take them away.

Then the Knicks closed the third on a 22-9 run to get within 96-90, per ESPN's play-by-play, with Brunson hitting a three and three free throws on one trip, Andre Drummond scoring twice around the rim and Tyler Kolek and Landry Shamet knocking down threes. That's the stretch that changed the night.

Brunson finally looked like Brunson

I've been worried about the jumper. According to the New York Post, Brunson had made just four of his 20 threes in the four games before Wednesday. Against Chicago he went 6-of-10 from deep and 13-of-25 overall for 38 points and seven assists, per the NBA.com box score, and he scored 14 in the fourth quarter, per the Post. The one everybody will be replaying came late: he crossed Powell into another zip code and buried a three, then actually celebrated it, per the Daily News. The New York Daily News also noted he did it in his home state, where he won a high school title. His three with 1:39 left made it 130-122, per ESPN's play-by-play, and that was basically the ballgame, even after Jalen Smith's three cut it to 130-127 and Powell missed a game-tying look at the end, per the AP.

Mike Brown also did something I didn't expect. He put Kolek next to Brunson to get Jalen off the ball, and it worked. "One of the things [assistant coach] Rick Brunson suggested was throwing Kolek in the game with Jalen," Brown said, per the Post. Kolek gave us nine points and nine assists with zero turnovers in 18 minutes, per the box score. That's a backup point guard doing exactly his job.

The bench won this one, and Bridges watched

Jordan Clarkson got a DNP on Tuesday against Detroit. On Wednesday he scored 18 on 7-of-11 shooting in 17 minutes, 12 of them in the fourth quarter, per the Post, and finished a game-high plus-15, per SNY. Brown even called him "our defensive player of the game" for his two steals during the run, per SNY. Shamet rolled his ankle in the first half, went to the locker room, came back and still hit 4-of-7 from three for 14. Between Clarkson, Shamet and Kolek, that's 41 bench points, per SNY. Drummond added 11 rebounds in 15 minutes, and the Knicks won the glass 50-39 with 16 offensive boards, per ESPN's team stats.

The flip side is Mikal Bridges. He played 13 minutes, three of them in the second half, and finished with three points on 1-of-4 shooting, per the box score. The Post called it his shortest night as a Knick outside of the two times he was subbed in briefly to keep his games-played streak alive. Brown's explanation was basically that the group on the floor kept winning, so it was hard to go back. I get it, and I'm not going to argue with a 43-31 fourth quarter. But I want Bridges and OG Anunoby on the wings together, because that size and length is how we beat good teams in May. Anunoby did his part with 23 points and 7-of-8 at the line. Bridges has to find his way back into this thing, and fast.

The other thing I loved is the balance. The Knicks scored 44 points in the paint, per ESPN's team stats, and still hit 22 of 48 threes, per the NBA.com box score, which is exactly the inside-out mix I keep asking for. Karl-Anthony Towns was a big part of that. Cat banged up his left wrist in a first-quarter collision with Noa Essengue, per the AP, came back taped up, and still put up 19 points and 13 rebounds with five assists, hitting 3-of-6 from deep while playing through foul trouble. Every time he spaced out to the arc and let the guards attack, Chicago had no good answer. That's why I'll keep defending the five-out look with him at center.

My gripe is the defense, again. Giving up 127 to a Bulls team that was 1-3 coming in, with 34 points in the third quarter alone, isn't something we'll get away with against better teams. Still, two wins in two nights, both from double digits down, both on grit. If you missed it, here's our Game Day Preview for this one: https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-bulls-game-day-preview-2026-10-28. Now go get Philly.