The screams have been unrelenting recently, with fans and the media wondering when Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau will change his initial lineup to insert debutant Immanuel Quickley in place of Elfrid Payton.
Payton responded with his best game in several weeks on Wednesday night in Chicago, helping to propel the Knicks to a 107-103 victory over the Bulls at United Center.
Payton scored 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 35 minutes – his best playing time in seven games – and Quickley added nine points in just 13 minutes.
Julius Randle hit five points and finished with 27 points, the best in the game, while RJ Barrett scored 17 for the Knicks (10-13). They did not reach 10 wins until the 34th game last season, when they started at 10-29 and ended the year with a 21-45 mark.
Zach LaVine scored 24 points and Thaddeus Young added 19 off the bench for the Bulls, who hit just 6 out of 36 (16.7 percent) of the 3-point streak. Lauri Markkanen scored just four points in the second half and nine overall for Chicago, after scoring 30 in the 110-102 victory over the Knicks on Monday.
The Bulls (8-12) cut a deficit of 18 points at the start of the fourth period to three, 99-96, with 5:45 remaining after a 20-5 run. But a key 3 from Reggie Bullock (nine points) and a short jump from Payton replenished the lead to eight.
Payton played just 18 minutes in Monday’s loss, with Quickley recording 30 minutes off the bench. But the owner of the Knicks scored half of his team’s points in a 12-4 opening game. He finished with 10 in the first quarter in the game of 5 out of 7, while Randle buried three consecutive 3-point points at the end of the period, while the Knicks built a 34-17 lead.
The 10 points in the first 12 minutes corresponded to Payton’s high production in any of the previous six games.
Payton also picked up seven rebounds while playing across the room, and Quickley fell to a runner in the opening minute of the second. Newcomer Obi Toppin also scored a 3 when he first entered the game and then another jumper for his five points in 10 minutes.
Quickley’s recent offensive wave – 20.6 points per game over the previous five performances – shifted the overall choice of 25th in the draft to second place among all NBA scoring newcomers (12.6 ppg in total), despite playing less than 20 minutes (19.7) per ride. He is second only to Timberwolves’ No. 1 overall Anthony Edwards with 13.6 points per game.
The Bulls closed to within 10 on a Lavine jumper in the middle of the second quarter. But Barrett scored eight of his 14 points in the first half of the period, although his face turned on the field in the final seconds led to a Young tray for a 63-52 lead to the Knicks at halftime. Thibodeau had emphasized before the game the importance of avoiding these disappointments.
“You have to bring energy into the whole game,” said Thibodeau. “If you have a breakdown, a guy takes a long time to come back, a guy complains to the referee, either out of frustration, thinking that you suffered a foul, you end up giving up an open shot or a tray.
“We cannot afford to do that. Therefore, we must have discipline. There will be missed calls, there will be some frustration. Return. If you have something to do to a referee, do it during a dead ball. You cannot do this while the game is going on. “
The Bulls continued to fail in the 3-point range, losing their first six attempts to open the third quarter. Chicago recovered in nine with 2:22 remaining in the period, but Quickley and Randle’s subsequent 3s (his fifth) gave the Knicks a 91-76 lead in the last quarter.