Karl-Anthony Towns takes over late as Knicks escape with victory over lowly Bulls

CHICAGO — The Bulls wanted to lose.

The Knicks ultimately agreed.

Karl-Anthony Towns took over Sunday, scoring seven of his team’s final 11 points as the Knicks escaped from 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 trend toward rock bottom.

Three of their starters were on minutes restrictions and didn’t play for most of the fourth quarter, while three of their top veterans — including Coby White and Nikola Vucevic — were cut before the trade deadline.

Still, the Knicks (37-21) found themselves in a dogfight.

The result felt in doubt until Mikal Bridges buried a 3-pointer in the corner with 26 seconds left on an assist from Jalen Brunson, who kicked the pass to his wide-open teammate.

It gave a six-point lead to the Knicks, who rode Towns for most 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 on.

Guerschon Yabusele, who was cut 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 points in the second quarter and by one point with less than three minutes remaining before Towns took over.

The Knicks arrived under less than ideal circumstances on Sunday. They played a late-night thriller on Saturday night — an 8:30 p.m. tipoff against the Rockets — and then flew across a time zone to play in the Midwest.

So tired legs and mind probably played a role.

But the Knicks did enough in the second half to avoid a painful defeat.

Towns came out aggressive after his strong performance against the Rockets on Saturday.

It was an encouraging development amid a largely disappointing season for Towns, who dropped hints all season about his dissatisfaction with coach Mike Brown’s system.

Before the game, Brown reiterated that Towns’ offensive role isn’t much different, if at all, and that the drop in production is simply a product of the roster changes.

Towns showed on Sunday that he can thrive in this offense.

“I understand it’s something we need to talk about and I’m okay with talking about it, but until those numbers change, I can’t say much because he’s going to get an opportunity,” Brown said. “We don’t call a lot of plays. Now you compare his numbers to last year, [backup center Mitchell Robinson] did not play in the regular season. KAT averaged 36.37 minutes per game. Mitch is playing now. Landry [Shamet] didn’t play last year. He plays. We try to get him to play 17 to 22, 23 minutes per game. We have Jose [Alvarado] now.

“So when you do that, guys’ minutes go down. Not only do guys’ minutes go down, but guys’ field goal attempts go down and all the things you see have a statistical impact on the game.”