Death, taxes and Josh Giddey playing his best basketball at Madison Square Garden.
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The Australian guard exploded for a season-high 27 points and 16 rebounds to go with four assists, a steal and a block but still it wasn’t enough as the Bulls fell 113-111 to the New York Knicks in an overtime thriller.
It was Giddey’s 16th double-double of the season, which ranks sixth among NBA guards, and the 70th of his career.
Giddey made his presence felt right away on Friday, blocking Jalen Brunson as the Bulls went down the other end and got on the scoreboard with a Lonzo Ball triple.
Giddey was then wrapped up by Miles McBride and turned it over on Chicago’s next possession, but it was just one blemish in an otherwise strong quarter from the Australian.
Giddey was setting the tone with his work on the boards, hustling for seven rebounds in the opening quarter while he also drove towards Miles Bridges and through contact for his first field goal.
The Bulls led 21-19 after the first quarter but the Knicks were able to regain control of the game in the second, outscoring Chicago 31-22 despite having a poor shooting half for their standards.
The Bulls weren’t getting much help on offence outside of Nikola Vucevic though, with the Chicago big man leading the way on 14 points. All of the Bulls’ other starters, meanwhile, had combined for 16.
While Giddey was getting plenty of work done on the boards, Chicago desperately needed some buckets from the Australian, who only had two points at halftime.
And he delivered, with Giddey scoring 12 in the third quarter alone, capping it off by driving at the smaller McBride off a Vucevic screen and laying it in.
It was exactly what the Bulls would have wanted to see from Giddey, who used his 6-foot-8 frame to his advantage, showing no hesitation as he took McBride on for the finish.
Giddey’s scoring flurry had the Bulls in with a chance entering the fourth quarter, only trailing 83-81 and the 22-year-old was far from finished either.
He added another 11 points in the fourth, including a trio of clutch 3-pointers, as the Bulls took the Knicks all the way down to the final seconds of the quarter.
Ball had a chance to win the game late and it was as if he had too long to think, missing a wide-open 3-pointer.
There were still two seconds on the clock though as Chicago regained possession after New York lost the ball out of bounds, and coach Billy Donovan drew up the perfect play to get the ball to Vucevic in the paint.
But Bridges rose above to block the hook shot and send the game to overtime.
Giddey opened the scoring in the extra period as he was left wide-open and made the Knicks pay, nailing the jumper to put the Bulls up 106-104.
McBride answered back with a triple to give the Knicks the lead before Karl-Anthony Towns bullied his way to the rim to make it a 109-106 lead.
At that point the Knicks were starting to build the momentum of a runaway freight train and even a big defensive play from Giddey to pick the ball away from Towns did little to stop New York from opening up a 113-106 advantage entering the final two minutes of overtime.
Turnovers were killing the Bulls, although they still found a way to give themselves a chance to steal victory late.
But Coby White wasn’t able to get a clean look on the final possession of the game as Chicago came up short despite Giddey’s heroics.
Speaking after the game, Bulls coach Donovan was critical of Giddey ball security after he finished the game with four turnovers but had plenty of praise for the Australian too.
“I thought he really, really helped us on the backboard in the first half,” Donovan said.
“He was really good… I thought the shots he took in the second half, he created angles for himself at the basket… I thought he had a really good balance of the drives to the rim and then also finding guys for shots.
“And then we found him for some open shots.”
Hornets hand Lakers rare home defeat | 00:59
SIMMONS PRODUCES HIGHLIGHTS IN SECOND CLIPPERS GAME
Ben Simmons showed flashes of his best and already looks right at home in his new team after another solid showing in his second game for the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday.
But it ended in defeat for Simmons and the Clippers anyway as a fourth quarter collapse saw the Milwaukee Bucks rally to a 116-110 win off the back of late heroics from Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Clippers opened up an early 11-6 lead after going on a 9-0 run and had a 14-11 buffer when Simmons checked in for the first time midway through the opening quarter.
For the most part in his Clippers debut, Simmons played when either Harden or Zubac was on the floor. Although, there was one line-up late in that game which featured Simmons along with Harden, Zubac, Nicolas Batum and Kris Dunn.
Simmons also featured at power forward in his first minutes on Friday, this time in a Harden-Zubac-Derrick Jones Jr.-Amir Coffey line-up, although Coffey quickly checked out in favour of Bogdan Bogdanović.
Clippers coach Ty Lue said last week that Simmons and Bogdanović had been already building strong chemistry at practice and that showed early in Friday’s game as the Australian hit the former Hawks guard on an outlet pass in transition for an open 3-pointer, which he made.
Simmons also found a cutting Bogdanović with a slick sideline-out-of-bounds pass, which then set up a Jones Jr. dunk.
MORE: Why the sky could be the limit for Simmons in Los Angeles
It was three quick assists in five minutes for Simmons when he briefly looked to drive to the rim before kicking it out to Batum for the 3-pointer, while the Australian earlier added his first field goal of the game when he initially handed it off to Bogdanović but then cut to the rim in support for the finish.
Simmons finished the quarter playing point centre with Zubac out and Batum back in as a long heave from Kyle Kuzma was good, leaving the score at 29-28 in L.A.’s favour.
Simmons quickly picked up where he left off in the second quarter with a perfectly weighted lob pass to Jones Jr.
At that point Simmons was sharing the floor with Kawhi Leonard for the first time after the Clippers superstar missed the game against the Jazz with right knee injury management.
That line-up to start the second quarter featured Leonard, Simmons, Jones Jr., Batum and Bogdanović before Harden entered the game for Simmons after the Clippers called a timeout, having fallen behind 41-37.
It came after Antetokounmpo steamrolled his way to an uncontested dunk, with Simmons struggling to deal with the physicality of the two-time MVP.
Boomers “gotta do whatever they can” | 05:14
Simmons checked back into the game for Leonard in the last few minutes with the Bucks leading 51-42.
While Simmons was making all the right decisions as the Clippers’ primary ball handler in transition, it did look a tad clunky with the Australian at the point in the halfcourt.
A lot of that came back to the fact Simmons was far too often looking to pass first and not putting enough pressure on the paint.
Harden got the floater to go on the final possession of the half, scoring in isolation to trim Milwaukee’s lead to 57-50.
The Bucks rode a wave of 3-pointers to their seven-point halftime lead, having gone 12-for-27 from deep. And they did all that with Antetokounmpo only playing 12 minutes.
Simmons didn’t re-enter the game until late in the third quarter with just two minutes left, and by that point the Clippers had worked their way to a 80-71 lead.
Simmons had an immediate impact too as he set up Harden for a 3-pointer and added in a steal.
The Bucks finished the quarter with as many turnovers (eight) as points and trailed 89-80 entering the fourth.
Simmons continued to show off his budding chemistry with Bogdanović as the two combined to extend the Clippers’ lead out to 93-80 early in the fourth, while Leonard later found the cutting Simmons for a reverse layup.
At that point the Clippers were still in a comfortable position, even as Antetokounmpo was starting to take over.
When the Bucks superstar checked out of the game with 6:27 on the clock, L.A. still led 101-96.
Antetokounmpo didn’t come back into the game, seemingly setting the Clippers up for a cruisy end to the quarter.
Instead, it was ‘Dame Time’ as Lillard heated up to close out the period and inspired the Bucks home in a disastrous ending to the game for the Clippers.
‘BONKERS’ STAT PROVES JUST HOW GOOD DYSON IS
Elsewhere, Dyson Daniels brought up a new milestone on the defensive end as the Atlanta Hawks blew a strong first quarter against the Orlando Magic to lose 114-108.
Daniels was heavily involved on both ends early in Friday’s game, with seven points, two steals and three rebounds as Atlanta opened up a 24-9 lead.
Both of Daniels’ steals led to points on the other end, including a dunk from the Australian off the second as the Magic called a timeout after starting the game 4-for-17 from the field.
With his first steal of the night, Daniels brought up a league-leading 150 on the year, tying last seaon’s leaders (De’Aaron Fox, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) despite only playing 51 games so far.
The Hawks led by as many as 19 points in the first half but crumbled as they were stymied by the Orlando defence, struggling with their finishing at the rim.
Even after rallying late to tie up the game in the fourth, Alanta missed four consecutive two-point shots as the Hawks dropped to 26-30 on the season.
Paolo Banchero led the way for the Magic (28-29) with 36 points, 10 rebounds and five assists while Franz Wagner had 25 points.
Trae Young, as expected, was the main source of offence for Atlanta with 38 points while Daniels had a handy 10 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals.
But Daniels himself had an inefficient shooting night, going 3-for-15 from the field while Zaccharie Risacher was 4-for-15, although he made three 3-pointers while Daniels went 0-for-3 from deep.
OTHER AUSTRALIANS IN ACTION
Elsewhere, Josh Green scored a season-high 19 points for the Charlotte Hornets but it wasn’t enough in a 129-115 loss to the Denver Nuggets.
Green shot 7-for-13 from the field, including five 3-pointers, and has now hit double figures in three of his last six games.
Luke Travers and Johnny Furphy also saw a few minutes off the bench for Cleveland and Indiana respectively.
‘DEFIES ANYTHING NORMAL’: LEBRON’S 40 WILLS LAKERS TO VICTORY
In other news, LeBron James and Austin Reaves combined for 72 points as the Los Angeles Lakers bounced back to score a battling 110-102 road win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
With Luka Doncic rested for injury management, James poured in 40 points and Reaves added 32 points to halt the Lakers’ mini-slump of two consecutive losses.
Reaves had been ejected in Thursday’s upset reverse against the Charlotte Hornets, but produced a monstrous performance at both ends of the court to help steer the Lakers to victory.
James, 40, meanwhile revealed that a lengthy sleep had helped fuel the 79th 40-point game of his career.
“That’s not a fix!” – Draymond | 01:01
“We got into the hotel at 3am and I slept all the way to about 11:30 this morning,” James said. “I got some rehab and then slept for another two and a half hours.
“I normally get the first bus to the venue but my body was like ‘no’. So I got the last bus, got ready for the game mentally and physically when I got here.”
Lakers coach J.J. Redick, meanwhile, lavished praise on James’ competitive spirit.
“He really just defies anything that is normal,” Redick said of James.
“I believe I read the other day that he’s a billionaire — and he’s playing on the second night of a back-to-back at 40 after 22 years, with every freaking record and accolade.
“He sets the standard for how you’re supposed to approach this craft, and that’s to me the most incredible thing — the mindset to do it over and over and over again.”
NO WEMBY, NO PROBLEMS FOR SPURS
In other action, the San Antonio Spurs shrugged off the disappointment of losing Victor Wembanyama for the remainder of the season with a 120-109 defeat of the Phoenix Suns.
The Spurs announced earlier Friday that French star Wembanyama would likely miss the rest of the campaign after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder.
But the Spurs showed no sign of a hangover from that bombshell injury bulletin with a wire-to-wire win. De’Aaron Fox led the way for San Antonio with 26 points.
Wemby set to miss remainder of season | 01:29
OTHER GAMES AROUND THE LEAGUE
In Philadelphia, Payton Pritchard drained eight three-pointers from the bench to lead the scoring with 28 points as the Boston Celtics returned to action with a 124-104 romp over the 76ers.
The Celtics took the lead early in the first quarter and never looked back, dominating a lackluster Sixers lineup to surge into a 72-56 lead at half-time.
Boston continued to score at will in the second half, leading by as much as 29 points in the fourth quarter in cruising to victory.
Jaylen Brown finished with 20 points while Jayson Tatum finished with a triple-double of 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Paul George led Philadelphia’s scoring with 17 points.
The reigning NBA champion Celtics improved to 40-16 to remain in second place in the Eastern Conference.
In New York, the Cleveland Cavaliers maintained their grip on first place in the East after battling past the Brooklyn Nets 110-97.
Mitchell led the Cavs scoring with 26 points while Evan Mobley and Darius Garland chipped in with 18 points apiece. Jarrett Allen added 16 points with 20 rebounds.
In other games, the Indiana Pacers took down the Memphis Grizzlies after a 50-point scoring blitz in the second quarter to set up a 127-113 victory.
Tyrese Haliburton led the home side’s scoring with 22 points on a night when seven Pacers players finished in double figures.
