By the time the fourth quarter rolled around Friday night, chants of “RJ Barrett” filled the sold-out Garden when he stepped to the line for free throws. 

And yet, despite a monster 44-point game from Barrett, the Knicks had been unable to pull away from the Bulls all night. That, along with some brutal free-throw shooting, came back to haunt them. 

By the end of the game, the overarching sound was that of stunned silence as DeMar DeRozan nailed a jumper with 0.4 seconds left to lift the Bulls to a 118-117 win over the Knicks. 

One of the best performances of Barrett’s career went for naught as the Knicks (18-15) lost a second straight game following an eight-game winning streak. 

“It’s not the same without the win,” said Barrett, who finished two points shy of his career-high. “Tonight, I had it going. It’s just frustrating to not get the win. I feel like we did enough things well to win that game, but we came up short.” 

With his team clinging on to a one-point lead in the final minute, it looked as if Barrett were going to cap off his night in style. He drove to the net once more and got off a tough shot that fell to give the Knicks a 117-114 lead with 29.4 seconds left. 

The Bulls then missed a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, but the Knicks could not corral the rebound and Zach LaVine (33 points) took advantage with a bucket that made it 117-116 with 7.6 seconds left. 

Jalen Brunson had a chance to extend the Knicks’ lead with 6.4 seconds left but missed a pair of free throws — a minute after Quentin Grimes had missed twice from the line. The Knicks finished the night 15-for-26 from the charity stripe. 

The Bulls called a timeout with six seconds left and drew up a play for DeRozan, who rose up over Grimes above the foul line and sank the dagger to sink the Knicks. 

“DeMar, that’s kind of what he does,” Barrett said. “So we couldn’t let it get to that point.” 

Barrett scored 26 points in the first half alone and then added some power and flair early in the third quarter when he made a strong drive to the rim and dunked over 6-foot-10 center Nikola Vucevic. DeRozan fouled Barrett on the play, and his ensuing free throw gave the Knicks a 77-73 lead. 

But each time the Knicks appeared poised to pull away by pushing their lead to seven or eight points, the Bulls always had an answer. 

Friday marked the third time in the last 10 days that the two teams squared off. The Knicks had won the first two meetings in Chicago, one in overtime and the next by 23 points. But they lacked the finishing touch on Friday. 

“I just felt like we never got our defense established,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It was an offensive game. Hard to slow those type of guys down once they get their confidence going like they did. Then they had some timely rebounds, we missed some free throws. Things can change real fast in this league.” 

It spoiled a night that should have belonged to Barrett, who shot 14-for-20 from the field and 6-for-6 from beyond the arc to go with seven rebounds and four assists. 

“RJ being RJ,” Brunson said. “He was in attack mode for 48 minutes. He carried us. Especially when we needed it. We just got to close it out for him.”