Several Knick players accused the Bulls of trying to run up the score in the Bulls' 98-69 blowout win in an attempt to hit the century mark, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.  Should the Bulls score 100 points, they provide free Big Macs for the crowd.

Steve Francis and Nate Robinson got in the faces of Bulls rookies Tyrus Thomas and Thabo Sefolosha as the final buzzer sounded. As the teams then retreated to their locker rooms, teammates had to restrain Knicks center Jerome James from going after Thomas.

The brawl earlier in the season between the Knicks and the Denver Nuggets also started after Knick players felt disrespected by J.R. Smith's high flying antics with Denver holding a large lead.

"I know when people are trying to run up the score on you," Francis said. "I told their players that if I was in the game, it would've been something different. I won't do that to nobody and I don't expect nobody to try to do that to the younger players on my team."

"I don't care about the Big Mac. I'm just saying respect, man. Their coach played in the NBA before. He should know that. If somebody did that to him, I'm pretty sure he would be upset."

Bulls coach Scott Skiles, speaking before Francis did, had no problem with his team missing three three-pointers, an alley-oop attempt from Chris Duhon to Thomas and a layup attempt off a rebound in the final 64 seconds after hitting 98 points.

"If we had 92 points with two minutes to go and we're out there jacking threes all over the place, I could see that," Skiles said. "But at the end to shoot the ball and try to tip it in, I've never been accused by anybody of trying to run up the score."

Pressed further, Skiles finally turned sarcastic.

"From everything I hear, they're on the verge of being a great team," Skiles said. "It ought to be a team we should be playing over and over again in the years to come. So something like this shouldn't fester or anything."