Knicks Vs Bulls: Karl‑Anthony Towns' late takeover seals a gritty 105-99 win while Chicago's slide deepens

The immediate impact of the Knicks Vs Bulls result is felt hardest in Chicago: a ninth straight loss has pushed the organization toward a clearer bottoming-out, while New York leaned on Karl‑Anthony Towns to close out a 105-99 escape. The Bulls arrived with starters on minute restrictions and recent roster churn, and Towns' late scoring burst — seven of the team's final 11 points — made the difference in a game that was in doubt until the final possession.

Knicks Vs Bulls outcome shifts pressure onto Chicago's roster and draft posture

Chicago fell to 24-34 and lost its ninth straight, the franchise's worst skid since 2019, underscoring an organizational tilt toward a bottoming-out strategy. Three starters were limited by minutes restrictions and sat out most of the fourth quarter, and three of the team's best veterans, with Coby White and Nikola Vucevic named among them, were moved before the trade deadline. Despite talk of draft lottery positioning, the Bulls still fought in this game — but the result increases urgency around playing time, roster evaluation and draft considerations.

How the finish unfolded — clutch play and the decisive push

New York still faced a dogfight late. The score remained tight until Mikal Bridges hit a corner 3 with 26 seconds left after a kick-out pass from Jalen Brunson, giving the Knicks a six-point cushion. Towns scored seven of the last 11 points to close the game, and the sequence turned a one-point deficit with under three minutes remaining into a final margin the Bulls could not overcome.

Individual lines and on-court contributions

• Karl‑Anthony Towns: 29 points, 11 rebounds (team highs); knocked down five of nine three-point attempts; collected three steals and received defensive player-of-the-game recognition from the coaching staff.
• Jalen Brunson: 19 points, nine assists; supplied the assist that created Bridges' late corner three opportunity.
• Mikal Bridges: hit the corner three with 26 seconds left to push the lead to six.
• Guerschon Yabusele: started at center for Chicago after being phased out of New York's rotation and traded before the deadline; produced nine points and eight rebounds in the first half, finishing with 11 points and 13 rebounds in 30 minutes.

Knicks coach Mike Brown credited his players for finding a way to pull out the win and also highlighted Towns' two-way value, noting the center's double-double and defensive contributions as pivotal to the night's outcome.

Context, timeline and lingering notes

The Bulls led by eight in the second quarter and still held a one-point lead with under three minutes left in the fourth before Towns took over. New York improved to 37-21 with the victory. The Knicks reached the arena after a demanding travel stretch: they played a late-night, 8: 30 p. m. tipoff on Saturday against the Rockets and then flew across a time zone to play in the Midwest the following day. What's easy to miss is how those travel minutes and short rest lines make late-game contributions from a player like Towns more consequential.

Also present in the provided materials was a standalone line reading "429 Too Many Requests"; that entry is unclear in the provided context and contains no further detail about the game.

The bigger signal here is that individual late-game performances can mask broader organizational pivots: New York found a close-game solution, while Chicago's direction — limited minutes for starters and recent roster sales — points toward a longer-term reset rather than a short-term corrective.