New York Knicks Status Check:
Record: 51-26
Division: 10-6
Conference: 34-13
Road Record: 22-16
Last 10 Games: 10-0
Streak: Won 13
Last game: 120-99 win over Washington
PPG: 100.0 (11^th)
Opponents PPG: 95.6 (7^th)
Offensive Rating: 111.2 (3^rd)
Defensive Rating: 106.3 (18^th)
Pace: 89.8 (26^th)
Effective Field Goal Percentage: .516 (7^th)
Turnover Percentage: .118 (1^st)
Defensive Rebound Percentage: .148 (5^th)
Offensive Rebound Percentage: .258 (19^th)
Free Throws Per Field Goal Attempt: .200 (19^th)
Opp. eFG%: .509 (23^rd)
Opp. TO%: .148 (5^th)
Opp. FT/FGA: .215 (23^rd)
Leading scorer: Carmelo Anthony (28.6)

Stats from Basketball-Reference

Knicks Injury Report:
Marcus Camby: doubtful (plantar fasciitis)
Tyson Chandler: expected to be out (bulging disc in back)
Kenyon Martin: expected to be out (sprained ankle)
Amare Stoudemire: out (knee surgery)
Kurt Thomas: out (stress fracture in foot)
Rasheed Wallace: out (foot surgery)

Overview:
Back-to-back losses to subpar teams aren’t exactly how you want to enter a game against a team that has won 13-straight contests, but that’s the way it goes for the Bulls tonight. With five games left in the season, the Bulls are tied with Atlanta for fifth place in the Eastern Conference.

Chicago has one fewer loss than the Hawks as it stands now, and they also hold the tiebreaker, but dropping to the sixth seed wouldn’t necessarily be the worst thing for the Bulls. They’d have a chance to win in a series against the Pacers or Nets.

Before the playoffs start the Bulls have a chance to break another streak, something they’ve been doing all year. Streaks that the Bulls snapped this season, good and bad, include: Bobcats 18-game losing streak, Suns 12-game road losing streak, Detroit’s 18-game losing streak against Chicago and most importantly Miami’s 27-game win streak.

That means the 13 in a row that New York has won should be easy work for the Bulls.

If Chicago wants to win this one they’ll have to stop Carmelo Anthony, who is currently on a tear as he tries to hold on to the scoring title. Melo has scored 35 points in five straight games and is averaging 40.6 points, on 61.1 percent from the field and 58.6 from three. He is also grabbing 8.2 boards per contest this month, his highest total this season.

Compared to those numbers the Bulls have shut him down a little this season, but Melo has still been getting his buckets. Anthony is averaging 34.0 points in the two games he played against Chicago this year, shooting 42.1 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from deep. He has averaged 8.5 trips to the free throw line.

A reason that the Bulls could withstand Melo dropping 34 points per game is because Luol Deng played him great. In December, Deng scored 29 points and grabbed 13 boards, matching Melo’s 29 in the game, while shooting a little bit better from the field. In January, Melo scored 39 against the Bulls, but shot just 14-32. Deng went 13-18 from the field and finished with 33 points.

Deng is one of the Bulls’ best defenders and they could clearly use him against Anthony. Unfortunately, Lu has missed the previous two games and will be a game-time decision tonight.

The Bulls may have to rely on the young Jimmy Butler to slow Melo down. Butler is a good defender and is coming off a career-high 28 points, but he is a drop off from Deng on both ends. (that’s not a knock on Butler, who was by far the Bulls’ best player last time out against Toronto).

Surprisingly, the Bulls may not be the most injured team in this contest. The Knicks are missing all of their bigs from Tyson Chandler and Amare Stoudemire, all the way to late season pickup Kenyon Martin. Add in Kurt Thomas and Marcus Camby and that’s five big men that the Knicks are missing. Chris Copeland, who is officially listed as a small forward, is expected to start at center. That leaves Melo, most likely at the power forward spot.

With this tiny lineup for the Knicks, Nazr Mohammed should have his way on the inside. Just kidding, he will miss about 15 tip-ins again, but Carlos Boozer should have the advantage all night. The only question is whether Boozington will use his size and go to the basket, or do his usual fade-aways (Melo guards power forwards quite well, but Boozer still has a strength advantage and will hopefully use it to get to the hole).

What the game really boils down to though is three-point shooting. New York has shot 37.9 percent from deep against the Bulls this year, slightly better than the 37.8 they have shot on the season. The Knicks tied a franchise record with 20 three pointers in their last game against the Wizards. The Bulls are seventh best in the league at defending the three, allowing teams to shoot 34.7 percent.

Just as important is how the Bulls shoot the three. A big reason Chicago won the three previous games against the Knicks was because it shot 47.6 percent from beyond the arc, more than 12-percent better than they have on the season.

New York Knicks Status Check:
Record: 23-12
Division: 4-2
Conference: 14-5
Home Record: 13-4
Last 10 Games: 4-6
Streak: Lost 2
Last game: 81-76 loss to Indiana
PPG: 101.5 (8^th)
Opponents PPG: 96.7 (12^th)
Offensive Rating: 111.5 (2^nd)
Defensive Rating: 106.2 (20^th)
Pace: 90.8 (21^st)
Effective Field Goal Percentage: .513 (6^th)
Turnover Percentage: .107 (1^st)
Defensive Rebound Percentage: .746 (5^th)
Offensive Rebound Percentage: .246 (24^th)
Free Throws Per Field Goal Attempt: .189 (23^rd)
Opp. eFG%: .506 (26^th)
Opp. TO%: .147 (6^th)
Opp. FT/FGA: .208 (18^th)
Leading scorer: Carmelo Anthony (29.0)

Stats from Basketball-Reference

Knicks Injury Report:
Marcus Camby: left Thursday’s game (foot)
Raymond Felton: out (broken right pinky)
Iman Shumpert: out (knee)
Rasheed Wallace: out (stress reaction in foot)

Overview:
Chicago goes for its third win in as many tries against the Knicks this season, as New York tries to avoid dropping both games of a back-to-back.

The Knicks lost to Indiana last night, without their star player. Carmelo Anthony was serving a one-game suspension for waiting outside the Celtics’ team bus for Kevin Garnett. New York, who averages 101.5 points per game, really struggled to score without their starting forward. They shot just 34.8 percent from the field and finished with only 76 points, by far their lowest total of the season (their next lowest scoring effort was 85, against the Bulls on December 8).

The Knicks starters scored just 35 points. Indiana’s bench, who employs the likes of Tyler Hansbrough, Ian Mahinmi and Gerald Green (in a non-Dunk Contest environment), scored 32 points. J.R. Smith scored 25 points off the bench for New York, but it took him 29 shots to do so. Tyson Chandler was the only Knick to shoot at least 50 percent. Chandler had a solid game, scoring 12 points and grabbing 15 boards, but the reigning Defensive Player of the Year was the only Knick starter to have fewer shots taken than points scored. Ronnie Brewer nearly had an 8-trillion, but he ruined it by having a single assist (miss you, Ronnie).

But the Pacers do this to pretty much everyone they play. Indy is second in opponent points per game (89.1) and first in defensive rating (98.5). The Pacers haven’t allowed more than 94 points since December.

The Bulls will be getting a somewhat tired Knicks team that is already pretty old. Jason Kidd played 31 minutes, Tyson Chandler played 38, J.R. Smith played 40 minutes, and Marcus Camby re-aggravated a foot injury in his 20 minutes. Keep in mind Amare Stoudemire is also returning from injury and was told by team doctors to limit his minutes. Anthony will obviously be well-rested, as he hasn’t played since Monday’s loss to the Celtics.

The Bulls held New York to 32.1 percent shooting in their first match-up, and 41.8 in their second go-around. The first game the Knicks didn’t have Carmelo, and they were missing Stoudemire in both. The Knicks will be without Raymond Felton for the first time in the series. Felton averaged 24.0 points per game, but shot 35.3 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from beyond the arc in the two games versus Chicago.

The Knicks are not playing their best basketball of the year right now. They started off smoking hot from the field, but they’ve dropped every month of the season thus far. In November New York shot 41.6 percent from three, in December it fell to 37.1. So far in January, they are shooting 34.9 percent from deep. They have also dropped in overall shooting, steals and points per game.

Those numbers translate to the Knicks being just 4-6 in their last ten games, coming back to earth from their great start and amazing shooting. New York is 4-3 on the second night of back-to-backs, averaging 104 points per game, but giving up 108.3.

The Bulls are having their best shooting month, at 46.4 percent, more than 2 percent better than the next highest month. They are also shooting 48 percent from three, nearly 17 percent better than they did in November. It’s only four games in, and knowing the Bulls’ offense things could change quickly, but these numbers are solid signs of improvement from a team whose offense needs to vastly improve.

The Knicks score a lot of points, and even though the Bulls are 5^th in defensive rating, New York is going to get their points. Brandon Jennings torched the Bulls for 35 points and Milwaukee scored 104, when they average 96.5. The Bulls are going to have to bring a better defensive effort, especially Luol Deng on Anthony, if they want to start their own back-to-back with a win. At least this time it will be Deng on the opposing team’s best scorer, rather than Nate Robinson.

Bad blood: Last time the two teams met, there were four ejections. It started with Carmelo Anthony being ejected in the fourth quarter. I don’t think Honey Nut Cheerios, or any cereal, played a part in this ejection, although you can never be too sure. Knicks coach Mike Woodson followed and then Joakim Noah and Tyson Chandler were later tossed. I nominate Nazr Mohammed to get thrown out this time.

New York Knicks Status Check:
Record: 14-4
Division: 2-1
Conference: 10-1
Road Record: 7-4
Last 10 Games: 7-3
Streak: Won 5
Last game: 112-92 win over Heat
PPG: 103.2 (3^rd)
Opponents PPG: 94.7 (8^th)
Offensive Rating: 113.3 (2^nd)
Defensive Rating: 104.0 (13^th)
Pace: 90.6 (26^th)
Effective Field Goal Percentage: .528 (3^rd)
Turnover Percentage: .10.5 (1^st)
Defensive Rebound Percentage: .737 (10^th)
Offensive Rebound Percentage: .233 (27^th)
Free Throws Per Field Goal Attempt: .186 (24^th)
Opp. eFG%: .496 (24^th)
Opp. TO%: .15.5 (4^th)
Opp. FT/FGA: .202 (13^th)
Leading scorer: Carmelo Anthony (26.4)

Stats from Basketball-Reference

Knicks Injury Report:
Carmelo Anthony: questionable (lacerated finger)
Marcus Cmby: out (plantar fasciitis)
Raymond Felton: probable (thumb)
Iman Shumpert: out (knee surgery)
Amare Stoudemire: out (knee surgery)

Overview:
The Bulls didn’t start well against Detroit, but behind Joakim Noah’s career night, they pulled out their 16^th straight win against the Pistons and can now string together their longest winning streak of the year against the top team in the East.

The Pistons shot 51 percent last night against the Bulls, including 55 percent in the first quarter. It goes without saying that the Bulls can’t let that happen again, but the defense will have to be a lot better to slow the Knicks. New York is second in offensive efficiency and third in effective field goal percentage. Detroit was 26^th in offensive rating and 18^th in effective field goal percentage.

The Bulls could luck out though, as Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton may not be able to go. Felton is listed as probable, but played Thursday night, while Melo is questionable. The Knicks were without Anthony when they faced the Heat, but still put up an offensive efficiency of 117.9. Miami has been struggling on defense this season, but that is an impressive offensive showing without their star forward. It’s also important to remember they’ve done all of this without Amare Stoudemire in the line-up.

Raymond Felton scored 27 points and dished seven assists Thursday against the Heat. Felton hit 6-10 from three, and the Knicks went 18-44 (41 percent) from beyond the arc in the game. Steve Novak hit 4-9 from deep to chip in 18 points. The 20-point defeat was Miami’s worst home loss in the Big Three era.

New York is shooting 40.8 percent from beyond the arc as a team this season, and has made 218 threes so far (the next closest team, the Lakers, have made 173).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Bulls have made 71, good for last place in the league. The Grizzlies, who are second to last, have made 97. Chicago is 27^th in the league in three point percentage (32 percent). The two teams couldn’t be more different on offense. The Bulls almost never take threes, while the Knicks live by it. Chicago has taken 222 threes this season, only four more than the Knicks have made.

If the Bulls win tonight, they will move to three games above .500, the most games above the middle mark they’ve been all season.

New York is hot right now, having won five straight. Three of those wins came against the Wizards, Suns and Bobcats, while the other two came against Milwaukee and Miami. There’s no question that the Knicks are one of the best teams in the league, and are sitting atop the Eastern Conference right now.

And this isn’t the time the Bulls wanted to go up against such a strong team. Chicago is on their last legs, being on the second night of a back-to-back. Tonight will be the Bulls’ fourth games in five nights. This is one where Gregg Popovich would sit his player, but not Tom Thibodeau.

Noah played 43 minutes last night, Luol Deng played 42 and Marco Belinelli logged 40. Even Boozer (39) and Hinrich (36) got a lot of run. Over the three game run, Noah has played 39, 44 and 43 minutes. Deng played for 41, 42 and 42. It’s hard to imagine Thibs giving these guys some rest, even if the game gets out of reach. The Bulls are 1-2 this season on back-to-backs.