FINAL: New York 110 Bulls 92. (Bulls road: 9-26)
LEADING SCORERS: Bulls: Felicio: 17 points (career-high). NY: Hardaway: 22 points.
LEADING REBOUNDERS: Bulls: Vonleh: 12. New York: Kanter: 13.
LEADING ASSISTS: Bulls: Payne: 6. New York: Burke and Ntilikina each with 5.
CCI 24 SECONDS COMMENTARY: In my 37 years of calling games, the Garden was as quiet as I can recall. The two teams came out sluggish as each club played a ton of young players. The Bulls were without Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen. Lopez did not play. Bulls Head Coach Fred Hoiberg informed the media prior to the game that Dunn’s injured toe has been placed in a boot and is listed day to day. The Bulls went 3-30 from three point range but made a game of it early in the third quarter when Cristiano Felicio scored 11 of his career-high 17 points. Antonio Blakeney provided instant offense tying his career-high with 16 points. His body took a punishment more than once last night crashing to the floor. Bobby Portis recorded his fifth straight game scoring 15 or more points.
Both the Bulls and Knicks were eliminated from the playoff picture. For NY it marks the fifth straight season they failed to qualify for postseason ball.
CCI STAT OF THE NIGHT: 3-30. Bulls misfired from three point range.
CCI 2ND STAT OF THE NIGHT: 61. NY out-rebounded the Bulls 61-46.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: Bulls Head Coach Fred Hoiberg: “I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about them throwing this on ESPN Classic anytime soon.“
Up next: Home with Denver Wednesday.
NBA NEWS AND NOTES:
Spurs 89 Golden State 75. No Curry, Durant, Thompson. No Green in the second half. Aldridge scored 33 for San Antonio.
Cleveland 124 Milwaukee 117. LeBron 40 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists. James’ 16th triple- double of the season. Kevin Love is back and returned with an 18-7-4 game. Wishing Cavs Coach Tyron Lue the best as he has stepped aside for health related reasons. Larry Drew takes over.
Miami 149 Denver 141 in 2OT. The Heat set a franchise scoring record. James Johnson took over and scored a career-high 31 points and ripped down 11 boards. Kelly Olynyk with 30 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks. Denver is struggling with the injured Gary Harris, who is sidelined with a knee injury. The Nuggets are on the outside looking in for the 8th and final seed.
Philadelphia 108 Charlotte 94. Ben Simmons with his 9th triple-double: 11 points 12 rebounds and 15 assists..0 turnovers. Simmons has registered 19- 10 assist games this season.. Joel Embiid 25-19- 2 assists and 4 blocks.
Indiana 110 Lakers 100- Pacers outscored LA 35-21 in the 3rd quarter. Win #41 for Indiana.
Detroit 106 Kings 90. Blake Griffin with a 26-9-7 game. Vince Carter now 22nd on the all time scoring list.
Brooklyn 118 Memphis 115- that’s all I got. Oh, wait! The Nets won consecutive games for the first time since mid-January.
Thanks for reading CCI. E mail me at cswirsky@bulls.com or Twitter: @ctsbulls.
Always a pleasure!