By Tennie Sumague
EBC New York Bureau
NEW YORK (Eagle News) – It may be too soon to predict that the New York Knicks awfully stink after Monday night’s 105-98 comeback win over the Chicago Bulls.
The Knicks got off to an ugly start, missing 13 of 15 shots in the first quarter, fell behind by as many 18 points and were careless with their ball movement. It appeared as if they were to continue their season winless.
But basketball’s mecca belonged to reserve forward Bobby Portis, whose clutch heroics in the final minutes included two huge threes 40 seconds apart from each other to give his team their only lead of the night, which was all the Knicks needed. Fans went buck wild, chanting “Bob-by Por-tis!” repeatedly.
“It’s fun when they call your name. That’s actually the first time that’s happened [in the NBA],” said Portis, who finished the night with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 4-for-5 from three-point range. “When I was in high school and college, it was different. When I got to the pros, it was never about me. I’ve always been a role player type of guy. Just a team mentality type of guy. So to hear that for the first time was fun.”
After Zack LaVine and Lauri Markkanen nailed back-to-back threes to give the Bulls a 98-90 lead with 3:24 remaining, Knicks head coach David Fizdale called for a timeout and his players shut down the Bulls’ offense, ending the game on a 15-0 run.
“One thing we can say about this team for sure, three out of the four games, we got a lot of fight in us,” Fizdale said of his team’s resilience. “We don’t ever lay down and in the other night [against the Boston Celtics] we ran out of emotional juice. I didn’t know if we would get over that hump but I knew we would fight back. And they did that, they trusted tonight in the second half and our bench was fantastic.”
Also with an impressive game was rookie sensation, RJ Barrett, who recorded his first double-double of his career, finishing with 19 points and 15 rebounds along with five assists.
“It was great. It was electric in there,” Barrett said. “Hopefully we get to have this feeling many more times.”
(Eagle News Service)