Bulls vs. Knicks game preview: dangerous when bad

weird schedule quirk facing this team so many times

Listening to Dunc’d On podcast today, they were pointing out how strange it is that the Bulls and Knicks will be playing eachother in 3 of the final 6 games of the season.

It was lamented how this affected ‘competitive balance’. Though they were talking from the Knicks’ perspective, as they are actually trying to achieve postseason success and the seeding in the top six of the conference can really make a difference. And the Bulls are not a good team.

But I actually think New York is getting screwed a bit with so many late-season contests against the Bulls, as the Bulls have nothing to play for outside of obtaining additional home dates before the season is mercifully taken out back and shot patted on the head and brought back in October. So unlike a team comfortable in their seeding, or tanking, the Bulls will be ‘competitive’.

Especially so when threatening to be outright bad. Old friend Jason Patt noticed one of many record quirks with this team: they are unbeatable when 4 games below .500:

Bulls dropped to 18-22 with Ring of Honor loss in January. They have stayed in the range of 4 games under .500 and 1 game under since. They are a ridiculous 10-0 in every game since when they had a chance to fall 5 under .500, including a bunch of their most improbable wins. These wins include both Timberwolves games, the Kings comeback, the Cavs 2OT game, the Pacers beatdown and several other clutch games, including Pelicans on road.

Jason also noticed that the gambling odds for this one have shifted in the Bulls’ favor.

Another factor there is likely that the Knicks played last night, and have had a Thibsian stretch of heavy minutes on their starters. Though OG Anunoby may return tonight after a multi-week multi-absence:

Given the schedule, predictability of this season, and home court advantage, I 100% expect the Bulls to win tonight. They were tied with the Atlanta Hawks before last night, but the Hawks lost and then host the Nuggets tomorrow. Dang.