NEW YORK • Just over three minutes in, the New York Knicks resembled a National Basketball Association team who had played a quadruple overtime marathon.

It led to a quick timeout and, when the brief meeting concluded, the Knicks were on their way.

After a sluggish start, they regrouped and cruised to a relatively stress-free 107-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.

Carmelo Anthony scored 13 of his 27 points during the opening quarter for New York.

The forward made 12 of 20 shots from the field and gave the Knicks the lead for good on a lay-up with 2min 16sec remaining.

He helped them maintain a lead for the final 38-plus minutes on a night when they shot 50 per cent from the floor after the shaky start against opponents who took four overtimes and nearly 31/2 hours to lose to Detroit on Friday.

"Not only did they play last night, to start the game off, we weren't communicating," he said.

Guard Arron Afflalo added 18 points, forward Lance Thomas contributed 13 and rookie forward Kristaps Porzingis had 10 for the Knicks, who improved to 14-14.

"That's what you use them (timeouts) for, to try and turn things around," Afflalo said.

"They (Bulls) got off to a great 12-2 start and we made the adjustment we needed."

Joakim Noah made his first start at centre for Chicago (15-10) and scored a season-high 21 points.

He started while Pau Gasol rested after playing 48 minutes in Friday's four-overtime loss.

The Bulls shot 39 per cent and lost their third straight game.

Their coach Fred Hoiberg said: "There is no doubt at that but you have to muster the energy and fight through that and I don't think we did a good job of that."

REUTERS