Ian Begley, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Bulls 104, Knicks 80; Triangle debut a dud

As far as opening acts go, this one was pretty awful. The New York Knicks looked disjointed on offense and couldn’t get enough stops on defense, losing 104-80 to the Chicago Bulls in their season opener.

Moment of the game: The Knicks' lack of depth hurt them early on -- and ultimately decided the game. Carmelo Anthony was subbed out with 2:13 to play in the first quarter and the Knicks up by four. When he returned, they were down 11. Yes, Chicago ripped off a 25-10 run in seven minutes with Anthony on the bench. The Knicks closed to within 10 at halftime, but the Bulls largely controlled things the rest of the night.

Sidenote: The lineup of Tim Hardaway Jr., J.R. Smith, Pablo Prigioni, Jason Smith and Quincy Acy was outscored 10-2 to end the first. First-year head coach Derek Fisher may want to use these five together sparingly.

Stat of the game: Carmelo said he wanted to shoot less this season. In theory, that seemed like a good idea. But the reality of it didn’t work out so well. He took only 13 shots on Wednesday and scored 14 points.

Anthony, by the way, averaged 21.3 shots per game last season. His 13 shots came in three quarters.

Anthony didn’t play in the fourth quarter. Fisher decided to rest his regulars because the Knicks play the Cavs on Thursday night.

Stat of the game II: The Knicks shot just 36 percent from the field through three quarters. That’s not good. It wasn’t a memorable debut for the triangle offense.

New York missed 10 of its first 12 3-point attempts. Starting guard Iman Shumpert finished 2-for-9 with five points. Shane Larkin, starting in place of Jose Calderon (calf), had six points.

Amar'e Stoudemire probably looked most comfortable in the triangle, scoring 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds in 24 minutes. On the other end of the floor, New York allowed Chicago to hit 54 percent of its shots in the first three quarters.

Celebrity appearance of the game: Taylor Swift appeared on the Knicks’ video board almost as often as Carmelo Anthony on Wednesday night. The pop star was in town promoting her new album. She was featured in a video with Stoudemire in the first half to promote her new song “Shake it off.” Stoudemire danced in the video. It was not particularly well-received by the home crowd.

Tweet of the night (from our man Dave McMenamin):

Question: Has the Knicks’ first game changed your outlook on the team? What did you think of the triangle offense?

You can follow Ian Begley on Twitter.

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