CHICAGO -- Dwyane Wade has never played with Derrick Rose or Joakim Noah. He wasn't with the Chicago Bulls last season, and he wasn't around to see how splintered the team's roster became at times during a disappointing campaign.

But the future Hall of Famer is smart enough to know that when athletes come back to play against their former team, the members of that particular former team had better come prepared to play. Wade, like rest of the 23,376 in attendance at the United Center, saw early on in Friday night's 117-104 loss to the New York Knicks that Rose and Noah came ready to dominate.

FRIDAY NIGHT IN THE NBA Luke Walton's young Lakers knocked off the Warriors on a night of reunions in the NBA. • Curry can't hit 3, Lakers roll

• Lakers could be on faster track

• Rose, Noah get best of old mates

• For Rose, life is good on this night

• No answers for winless Pelicans

"Anybody could sense that," Wade said. "It's just the nature of the beast. When someone leaves an organization, they come back, they want to do well. They want to get a win, they want to play well. Whoever says they don't is just flat-out lying. It's no secret about that, so they did [play well]. Jo had a great game. Obviously, we know he's a great passer, he's a leading assist guy on their team, but tonight he scored 16 points for them, and those 16 points were hard to overcome. We weren't banking on all those."

Though primed for a motivated Noah and Rose, the Bulls just didn't respond to the challenge. In their most disappointing performance of the early season, they allowed the Knicks to set the tone early, while Rose and Noah gleefully closed the door late.

"A lot of miscommunications," Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler said. "Guys not doing what we were supposed to do, what we talked about all day before this game. I think at times, we just wanted to do what we wanted to do. Everybody wasn't on the same page, so I think that's where we got caught up the majority of the time."

Chicago native Derrick Rose, left, scored 15 points and had 11 assists while Joakim Noah added 16 points, as their new outfit, the Knicks, defeated their former Bulls teammates. David Banks/USA TODAY Sports

The Bulls looked like the rudderless group from a season ago that allowed most teams to do whatever they pleased. Rose, with his 15 points and 11 assists, and Noah, with nine rebounds and four assists to go with those 16 points, looked like the dynamic duo that crushed the will of opponents for years in this same United Center. As much as Butler tried to play off the significance of Friday's contest, everyone within the Bulls organization knew this one meant more than a usual regular-season game.

"I got tired of talking about it and hearing about it," Bulls forward Taj Gibson said, noting how strange it was to see Rose and Noah running at him in a different jersey. "But it's the NBA, things like that are going to happen.

"That was a totally different team than what I've been seeing on film."

But that's what happens when players rise to the occasion -- something Rose and Noah definitely did during an emotionally charged evening, which also included lots of cheers, plenty of boos (for Rose) and a tribute video for both players that covered almost a decade. The intensity from both men was on display throughout the contest, particularly during a second-half dustup between Noah and Butler that left both exchanging words.

"The guy likes to talk to me," Butler said. "I like to talk back. Just two guys out there competing."

The fact that Butler finished his commentary with a prolonged roll of the eyes was lost on nobody around him. There is no love lost between the former teammates after a clash for more control in last season's locker room. On this night, Noah and Rose got the best of their former cohorts, enjoying one of the sweetest regular-season victories they'll have in their respective careers. Noah couldn't contain his excitement as he literally skipped off the floor on his way out of the game in the fourth quarter.

Usually the fifth game of any season doesn't hold a lot of weight, no matter the result, but this one had a family quality to it, like relatives playing a competitive game of football on Thanksgiving. Rose and Noah got the best of their old friends, and their old city, and it won't soon be forgotten.

"Those guys ... did some great things here," Wade said. "In this organization, in this city, both on and off the court. You want to see them do well; not win, but you want to see them have a healthy game and play in the city and get the ovation that they got. It's just unfortunate that they came and got a win."