CHICAGO — The Bulls wanted to lose.
The Knicks finally obliged.
Karl-Anthony Towns took over down the stretch Sunday, scoring seven of his team’s final 11 points as the Knicks escaped the United Center with a 105-99 win.
The Bulls (24-34) lost their ninth straight — their worst streak since 2019 — and have a clear direction of bottoming out.
Three of their starters were operating on minutes restrictions and didn’t play most of the fourth quarter, while three of their best veterans — Coby White and Nikola Vucevic included — were shipped off before the trade deadline.
Still, the Knicks (37-21) found themselves in a dogfight.
The result felt in doubt until Mikal Bridges buried a corner 3-pointer with 26 seconds left off an assist from Jalen Brunson, who kicked out the pass to his wide-open teammate.
It provided a six-point lead to the Knicks, who were riding Towns for much of the evening.
The center finished with 29 points and 11 boards, both team highs.
He knocked down five of his nine treys.
Brunson added 19 points and nine assists.
Landry Shamet scored 16 off the bench.
Despite the organization’s eyes on the draft lottery, the Bulls settled for a fight early.
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Guerschon Yabusele, who was cast from the Knicks rotation this season and traded before the deadline, started at center for Chicago and produced nine points with eight rebounds in the first half.
He finished with 30 minutes, 11 points and 13 boards.
The Bulls led by eight in the second quarter and by a point with under three minutes left — before Towns took over.
The Knicks arrived Sunday under less-than-ideal circumstances. They played a late-night thriller Saturday night — an 8:30 p.m. tipoff against the Rockets — then flew across a time zone to play in the Midwest.
So tired legs and minds were probably a factor.
But the Knicks did enough in the second half to avoid an embarrassing defeat.
Towns came out aggressive, following up his strong performance Saturday against the Rockets.
It was an encouraging development amid a largely disappointing season for Towns, who has been dropping hints all season about his discontent with coach Mike Brown’s system.
Before the game, Brown reiterated that Towns’ offensive role isn’t much different, if at all, and the dip in production is simply a product of the roster changes.
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Towns showed Sunday he can thrive in this offense.
“I understand it’s something that we need to talk about and I’m OK talking about it, but until those numbers change there’s not much for me to say because he’s getting an opportunity,” Brown said. “We don’t call a ton of plays. Now you compare his numbers to last year, [backup center Mitchell Robinson] didn’t play in the regular season. KAT averaged 36, 37 minutes a game. Mitch is playing now. Landry [Shamet] didn’t play last year. He’s playing. We’re trying to get him up to 17 to 22, 23 minutes a game. We’ve got Jose [Alvarado] now.
“So when you do that guys’ minutes are going to go down. Not only are guys minutes going to go down, but guys field goal attempts are going to go down and all the things that you see impact the game statistically.”
