In the long run, it was probably for the best that the Bulls blew the Knicks off the court during the third quarter on Tuesday night.
Sure, it would have been nice for the Knicks to get the dual feathers in their cap of sweeping the best team in the East during the regular season and wounding their chances of getting the best record in the NBA. Those things are window dressing, though, and the Knicks have actual concerns ahead of them this season.
If the Bulls hadn't gone on a 26-2 run to wipe out a three-point Knicks halftime lead, the game would have been hard fought all the way through the final minute. That would have meant heavy usage of Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups and the higher risk of injury that comes along with that usage.
There was absolutely no point to rolling those dice. Amar'e Stoudemire was running and tweeting before the game to assure everyone that he's feeling fine, so all eyes need to be on the ultimate prize and not the small favors granted by a win you don't really need.
It was hard to watch Derrick Rose use the Garden floor as a canvas to wrap up his MVP campaign, but the game's lack of import at least made it possible to marvel at the skills of a guard who is going to be a big part of NBA life for the next decade. And, should the basketball gods deem it so, a Bulls-Knicks series will be all the more heated after watching some of Rose's acrobatic dunks to get fired up for Game One.
All in due time. For now, it is about getting ready for the Celtics.
That's why the team was better served by handing heavy minutes to Bill Walker and Shawne Williams in an effort to figure out how everyone fits into the postseason rotation. Mike D'Antoni has made it clear that there will be fewer people playing once the playoffs get underway, but each of those guys seems to have earned a spot in the mix with the way they led a comeback effort on Tuesday night.
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It's less clear if Jared Jeffries or Ronny Turiaf will get the minutes alongside Shelden Williams inside, but it is far nicer to worry about these kinds of questions than about the loss to the Bulls. You shrug your shoulders and move on, content in the knowledge that life looks no different today than it did yesterday.
The Knicks are used to playing meaningless games in April. The big difference is that they aren't used to having meaningful games ahead of them.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
