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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
CHICAGO (AP) -- Scoreless in the first half, Latrell Sprewell wasted little time finding the basket in the third quarter. And his
second-half surge sparked the New York Knicks to their second straight victory to start the season.
Sprewell hit three straight jumpers in the opening 90 seconds,
finishing the period with 15 points, as the Knicks beat Chicago
84-74 in the Bulls' opener Wednesday night.
|  | | The Knicks' Rick Brunson goes up against the Bulls' Kornel David in the second quarter. |
"The third quarter was very fun," said Sprewell, who scored 19 points in the second half. "I was trying to get myself fired up. Once I got a couple shots to go down, I just got more aggressive. Things really turned around for me."
Allan Houston scored 23 points for New York, and the Knicks clamped down defensively for a second straight game.
One night after holding Cleveland to 39 percent shooting in a season-opening victory, the Knicks limited the Bulls to just 30 percent.
"I want us to get back to where we were last year as a team,"
said Sprewell, who recently signed a five-year, $61.9 million
contract extension with the team he helped reach the NBA Finals
last season.
"We try to keep the other team off balance. It's very tough when you have two guys that play as similar style as we do," Houston said of his relationship with Sprewell. "We try to exploit
it in every game. One night, he will have a mismatch and another night, I will."
Dickey Simpkins led the struggling Bulls with 17 points. The Knicks won despite Chicago's huge advantage at the free-throw line
-- 29-of-40 to just 8-of-9 for the Knicks.
Elton Brand, the top pick in last summer's draft, scored 14 points for the Bulls, shooting 3-of-11. Toni Kukoc missed 13 of 14 shots and had just nine points. Ron Artest, Chicago's other
first-round pick, also scored 14 in his NBA debut
"I had a terrible night," Kukoc said. "They happen. I don't think I had a bad choice of shots, they just didn't fall. They didn't go in and there is nothing you can do."
Sprewell scored 15 in the third quarter as the Knicks went out to a 62-55 lead. Chicago was within six in the final period before Houston hit a 3-pointer, Marcus Camby dunked on a pass from Charlie Ward, and Sprewell followed a miss from the lane to put the Knicks up 12.
Larry Johnson's tip just before the buzzer ended an ugly first half and gave the Knicks a 32-30 lead. New York had a 12-0 run in
the quarter to go up 10 but then the Bulls, taking advantage of New
York foul problems, scored 10 in a row to tie.
The Knicks were called for 22 first-half fouls, 12 fewer than
the Bulls, who shot 27 percent from the field with just nine
baskets.
For the game, New York was whistled for 36 fouls to just 16 for the Bulls.
Game notes
A tribute to Walter Payton was played on the large overhead
scoreboard and a moment of silence observed just before starting
lineups were announced. The former Chicago Bears running back died
Monday at age 45. ... The Knicks' roster features three players not
on last year's Eastern Conference championship team -- DeMarco
Johnson, Andrew Lang and John Wallace. ... Dickey Simpkins got the
start at center to give the Bulls more defensive mobility against Marcus Camby and Larry Johnson. ... Bulls coach Tim Floyd promises
to "be myself" this season. During the lockout-ravaged 50-game
season, Floyd said: "I deferred a great deal. I wanted to be
more familiar and more knowledgeable. Before you lead, you have to
follow, particularly in uncharted waters, which it was."
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Boston 112
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Chicago 74
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LA Clippers 98
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