Knicks 116, Bucks 94: “I missed a good game!”

These Knicks either lose or win in a rout, and last night they very much did not lose

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, February 6, 2018 — A little after 8 p.m., whatever Phil Jackson had in mind for the post-Carmelo Anthony Knicks died at the feet of James Dolan. Not literally, though Kristaps Porziņģis tearing his ACL was the death of a dream. Ahh, such a dream, though — one that inspired real faith, fresh on the heels of a 17-win, six-month thousand-yard stare.

The injury comes four months after the Knicks traded Carmelo Anthony, christening the rebuild around Kristaps Porziņģis. No one knew it at the time, but that’s how fast it took one era and its successor to end. Four months.

The Bucks know how quick scripts flip. In July of 2021 they beat the Suns 4-2 in the Finals. Their future looked bright. Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who scored 50 in the clincher, was only 26, Khris Middleton 29, Jrue Holiday 30. There was young talent in Donte DiVincenzo and Bobby Portis. No one knew it then, but Milwaukee’s reign ended the same night it began.

Three years later, they’ve won one playoff series, in 2022 against the Lonzo-less Bulls. Middleton, 33, is yet to play this year since offseason surgery on both ankles. Holiday was replaced by Damian Lillard, who’s 34 when trying to score and 64 when trying to defend. Brook Lopez is 36 — early days this season, but so far he’s shooting threes worse than he has since back when he didn’t shoot threes. Giannis is 30 and still Giannis, but it’s hard to imagine even him elevating this sinking, stinking mediocrity.

Thing is, even if the bottom falls out this season, the Bucks don’t own their first-round pick; they don’t have clear control over any of their firsts until 2031. Their future looks cold and dark and very, very long. So they need to be winning as much as they can now — both for the present and to have any chance of keeping Antetokounmpo into the future.

MSG, November 8, 2024 — The Bucks fell 116-94 to the Knicks, a game New York led most of the way by 20+ points. They’re now 2-7, which would be worst in the East if not for the 76ers injury woes reducing them to starting three bottles of bleach and two ammonias.

Afterward last night’s L, Giannis told reporters, “Did we compete today? No . . . If you don’t compete your ass off, you’re not going to win the game. [You have to] at least give yourself a chance. We came to New York after playing great last night. Then we come here and lose by 30. Are you okay with not competing? I’m not okay with that shit.”

We’ll come back to this.

O-RENA, Orlando, April 27, 2002 — Tracy McGrady scores 37 in a game that sees the Magic 12 minutes from taking a 2-1 series lead in their best-of-5 opening round matchup with Charlotte — match point for a franchise that hadn’t won a playoff series since advancing to the 1996 Finals. But after a fourth-quarter flourish from the Hornets’ Jamaal Magloire sends the game to overtime, McGrady doesn’t take a single shot in the extra session and the Magic lose the game and, three days later, the series, in what would be Patrick Ewing’s last hurrah.

A lot is happening quickly for Magic coach Doc Rivers, who one month earlier had to deal with comments from George Karl claiming Rivers, who’d gone from playing to broadcasting work to rising to be “the” hot young coaching candidate, hadn’t paid his dues to earn the job. “Anointed” was how Karl described Rivers; Karl also said “There’s gonna be four or five more anointments of the young Afro-American coach,” then wondered why Rivers and anyone literate thought his comment had anything to do with race. Never one to turn the other cheek, Doc shared that NBA coaches had nicknamed Karl “Naismith” — as in thinking he invented the game.

Anointed or not, Rivers never won a series with Orlando; two teams and eight years into his coaching career, the one-time can’t-miss candidate’s record stood 40 games under .500. Rivers had seen — and would continue to see — just how quickly something can end. The same went for the team that beat his.

Since winning that 2002 series, the Hornets haven’t won one since. That’s not exactly the whole truth — the Hornets did win a round six years later — the New Orleans Hornets. that is, who for reasons I don’t care to explore or explain are considered, along with the Oklahoma City Hornets, part of New Orleans Pelicans history. Got that?

MSG, November 8, 2024 — Nobody plans to lose. When you can point to one play where the coach gives up on the game . . . that’s not good.

That, multiplied by seven losses in nine tries, leads to what is now known as Doc Face.

Whatever the Bucks hoped to be last season when they fired a man who was 30-11 and replaced him with Rivers, that dream looks to have passed. A Knicks/Bucks playoff matchup — a seeming inevitability as Team Thibs was climbing its way up to the East’s better half — already feels like it’d be less a duel than putting an old knight to the sword. Things happen fast.

Blowouts unfold quickly when one team dominates every single time of possession stat. The Knicks owned the offensive glass. Won the turnover battle nearly 2 to 1. They took 50% more threes than the Bucks and made 100% more. Josef Stalin said whoever produced the most machines would win World War 2. Last night the Knicks just flat-out out-produced the Bucks, across the board.

Mikal Bridges was a prime example. Usually missing eight threes in a game is a problem — unless you take 11 or 12. Then the bigger deal is the 9-12 points added. And while Bridges is still struggling with threes above the break, he continues to drill them from the corners.

https://www.nba.com/game/mil-vs-nyk-0022400189/box-score

Karl-Anthony Towns scoring 27 in the first half was striking both for its ease and its novelty; from KP through Julius Randle, the Knicks have had better-than-average play at the power forward for a decade now, and I don’t know how often any of them scored 27 in a half against Milwaukee. Arguably more striking, inarguably more novel: Jericho Sims channeling his inner Hezonja and dunking on the Greek Freak. Our boy’s a man now, Mother!

Quoth foiegrastyle, “I missed a good game!” I hope not! The Knicks looked much, much better than the Bucks, in a way I’m not sure they ever have since Antetokounmpo became the player he now is. They’ve won four games this year, by nine, 22, 25 and 30. It’s fun to watch. But you never know how long these things will last. Next game is Sunday at Indiana, whom the Knicks beat by 30 two weeks ago. Fingers crossed for more of the same.