Trading RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley sent a message about the organization’s other top-two scorers.
They clearly felt comfortable leaning heavily on Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle.
On Wednesday, the Knicks’ faith was rewarded in a 116-100 victory against Chicago, with Randle and Brunson combining for 66 points and burying the Bulls for a second straight win at MSG.
They were efficient and carried the Knicks on the game-breaking 24-9 stretch in the fourth quarter, alternating with the ball and scoring efficiently.
Randle led all scorers with 35 points on 13-for-23 shooting. Brunson added 31 points on 13-for-22 from the field with 13 assists.
It was the second straight game Brunson reached double-digits in assists after failing to do that at all previously this season.
The trade has clearly unlocked more ball movement.
OG Anunoby was quiet offensively in his second game with the Knicks, scoring just 11 points on nine shots.
But he was also tied with Donte DiVincenzo for the third-highest scoring total on the Knicks (19-15).
In other words, it was the Randle-Brunson show. They were part of a starting lineup that utterly dominated Chicago’s, winning the rebounding battle (Isaiah Hartenstein had a career-high 20 by himself) and nailed over 40 percent of their treys. To underscore the starter’s dominance, the Knicks outscored the Bulls by 33 points in Anunoby’s 34 minutes.
The bench was a different story.
Tom Thibodeau experimented with a new second unit in the first half, leaving Randle in with the rest of the bench for minutes.
It didn’t go well.
The lineup of Randle, Quentin Grimes, Miles McBride, Precious Achiuwa and Josh Hart managed just eight points in six minutes and put the Knicks in an eight-point hole.
The big issue was offense.
It ran through Randle and Chicago’s defense wasn’t concerned with guarding anybody else, allowing the Bulls to collapse on their Randle target and clog the paint/passing lanes.
Thibodeau went back to the lineup experiment in the fourth quarter. It struggled again and the coach scrapped it pretty quickly, reinserting Brunson after two minutes of offensive malaise.
The coach is clearly learning and adjusting on the fly.
The Knicks still haven’t had an official practice since the trade.
The starters saved the day. Especially Brunson and Randle.
The Bulls, meanwhile, were built to compete this season.
They’re in win-now mode without a win-now team.
They have big contracts doled out to Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball.
Only one of those players — DeRozan — was available Wednesday.
The rest were injured. Chicago’s disappointing start to this campaign led to rumors of an impending firesale, with LaVine at the front of the line for a relocation.
But the market for LaVine, who missed his 17th straight game Wednesday with right foot inflammation, has been tepid.
The Knicks, per sources, are among the teams not interested in a swap for the 28-year-old wing.
So the Knicks were favorites at MSG against the Bulls, and they pounced.
DiVincenzo continued his strong play since joining the starting lineup, scoring 11 points on 3-for-8 from beyond the arc.
With Barrett and Quickley gone, DiVincenzo, who signed for $50 million in the summer, feels like the front-runner for third-best scorer.
“He started the season shooting the ball extremely well. And that’s a testament to him,” Thibodeau said. “He put a lot of time into the offseason.”