New York Knicks look like anything but defending champions when they visit Chicago Bulls at the United Center on Wednesday, with both sides stuck at 1-3 just four games into the 2026-27 season.

New York beat San Antonio in five games back in June to end a 53-year title drought, yet four games into the defence they have lost three of four and now have to do it on zero days' rest after beating Detroit on Tuesday.

Owner James Dolan told fans after winning the title, "I'm sorry it took so long, but here we are," a line that already feels a world away from the sluggish start to the new campaign.

How do New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls' form compare?

New York lost their first three games of the title defence, to Philadelphia, Boston and Orlando, before snapping the run with a 111-97 win over Detroit on Tuesday.

Jalen Brunson was the Finals MVP just four months ago, dropping 45 points in the title-clinching win over San Antonio, yet he has managed only 22.8 points a game since the new season got underway.

Chicago's defeat at Boston on Monday was their third loss by a double-figure margin in four games, an early worry for Tiago Splitter in his first season in charge.

The one bright spot, a 132-125 win at Milwaukee, came in a track-meet shootout that hints at how porous this Bulls defence can be whenever the pace picks up.

Chicago's defensive rating of 120.2 points allowed per hundred possessions is the widest gap in this matchup, and it drives a net rating of -18.3 that trails New York by a wide margin.

New York's own issue is turnovers rather than defence, with 16.8 giveaways a game feeding into the kind of track meet that suits a leaky Chicago defence more than it should.

Karl-Anthony Towns has been the Knicks' most consistent performer at 22.5 points and 14.0 rebounds a night, shooting just over 60% from the field through four games.

Caleb Wilson has carried Chicago's scoring at 21.0 points a game as a rookie forward, but his workload has not yet turned into wins for Splitter's side.

What's the team news for Chicago Bulls' meeting with New York Knicks?

Alvarado is a game-time decision for New York because of his ankle, having already missed Tuesday's win over Detroit, though he is a rotation guard rather than a starter so his absence mainly thins out bench minutes.

Chicago's bigger concern sits in the frontcourt, where Claxton remains out and both Williams and Awaka carry questionable tags of their own heading into the game.

None of Chicago's three fringe cases are projected starters, so Josh Giddey, Norman Powell, Matas Buzelis, Caleb Wilson and Jalen Smith should take the floor regardless, though the depth behind them is thin enough that extended foul trouble would hurt.

New York's own starting five of Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Towns is expected to be unchanged from the group that beat Detroit.

Splitter, who took this job after a single interim season in Portland, has not yet settled on a consistent closing five, and Chicago's rotation will likely stay stretched until Claxton is fit to return.

The key battles in New York Knicks vs. Chicago Bulls

Brunson's 4.5 assists a game look modest next to Giddey's 7.3, but the Bulls guard's inefficiency from the field makes that trade an easy one for New York.

Towns' rebounding edge against Wilson should feed New York's transition game, particularly with Chicago already without Claxton to anchor the glass.

Best player props for New York Knicks vs. Chicago Bulls

Brunson, Towns and Wilson have carried the bulk of the scoring load for their sides through four games apiece, and that pattern is the clearest guide to tonight's props.

New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls' head-to-head record

New York have won four of the last five meetings between these two, including a 36-point blowout in April when Anunoby made seven threes on his way to 31 points.

Chicago's only win in that stretch came at home in October 2025, a 135-125 shootout that hinted at the pace both sides can play at when defence is optional.

Tonight is the first of two 2026-27 meetings between these clubs, with the return fixture at Madison Square Garden on 4 November.

An earlier meeting in February 2025, a 113-111 overtime win for New York, sits outside the 12-month window for genuine form purposes, but it adds to a pattern of this fixture rarely going Chicago's way.

Our prediction for New York Knicks vs. Chicago Bulls

New York's rebounding advantage and Chicago's collapsing defence make the champions' slow start look more like early-season noise than a genuine alarm, even on the second night of a back-to-back.

Expect Brunson and Towns to do the heavy lifting again as New York ends its two-game losing run against Chicago, with a result that would look a lot more like the champions than their first three games of the NBA schedule have so far, regardless of what it does to either side's early-season place in the conference standings.